I would appreciate your help in answering some questions for me. Most food and cigarettes. If you didn't smoke you had some valuable coupons to trade,since smokers would gladly give up some of their food ration for cigarette coupons. Recycling was not of the concern it is nowadays, particularly since there was so much less waste. On an industrial scale metals were recycled.
Food rationing did provide a somewhat more even distribution of what was available.
If you knew a farmer you could swap items for extra food he would supply. Cars were hard to come by. Travel, luxuries,and patriotic attitudes were pretty well absent as well during the war. The black market flourished as things became harder to obtain. Entertainment was confined to movies and theatrical performances.