Waste Not Want Not. . .

Who hasn't had that phrase drilled into their heads ever since childhood? It really is a shame more people don't heed that advice. I think of this because I am amazed at what people take just because it is there. Early this afternoon I was out with a friend getting coffee and I happened to look around at some of the empty tables that hadn't been cleaned yet. At one there was one empty cup with a stack half an inch high of napkins. Was this person planning on spilling the entire cup of coffee onto themself? Of maybe they were scared somebody else might get all the napkins and leave them with nothing.
I can kind of understand the napkin thing. I should say I can understand the napkin thing better than what I say on another table. Somebody else thought that they might need a stack of twenty of the wooden coffee stir sticks. Of course they had only used one that was put off to the side neatly on a napkin. The rest of the sticks lay neatly piled at the edge of the table.
What is this compulsion people have to take stacks and stacks of things they don't need? Is it just because it is free? I have watched people take fistfuls of sweet n low or equal back to their tables and use only one or two packets. If anyone has any idea why people insist on doing this I would love to hear the reasoning behind it because it still has me baffled.