I love that re-using materials for insulation is somehow a negative. That really shows your commitment to sustainable construction.

Also, American homes are largely built with wood and plywood because we have a lot of lumber. New construction is affordable, efficient and well insulated. There are undoubtedly some developers producing buildings of sub-standard quality, but there's nothing wrong with making platform-framing houses and apartments out of wood. As for the flooding, or other damage...buildings are easily replaced. If you build on the coast in an area prone to flooding, you kind of expect to re-build at some point. That's why they're usually built 10 ft off the ground with hurricane ties and proper roof form.

We don't build things out of stone because it's an expensive, slow, labor intensive process that results in expensive houses that are hard to change over time. There are some stone houses. We also have some wood-frame houses that date back to the 1600's. Not exactly old by European standards, but it shows that wood buildings can last if people want them to last.

You'll find plenty of brick construction in the older cities of the North-east, but they were largely built at a time when brick and labor was affordable. Our country is newer, so we have less stone construction. For the most part we rely on platform framing because it's usually the cheapest option available for low-scale detached residential structures. Steel, modular units and structural insulated panels are becoming more popular as prices come down, and people move into cities with higher density housing. I suppose you would also complain about living in a building made of cheap Styrofoam and plywood, but they can be very efficient well insulated structures, capable of withstanding high winds.

If your apartment (in the US?) has paper thin walls...then it's because the developer was cheap and didn't care about sound insulation. It's not because the building is made of wood. It's because the builder didn't create a good wall assembly. Modern buildings use multiple components to achieve the results they want because it's cheaper and more efficient. In the old days they would just put up a stone wall and call it a day. If it fails to meet code in your area, you can actually force your landlord to make adjustments...starting with the outlets and then fixing the insulation within the actual wall.