The appendix is a relic from a time when we ate a lot of far more indigestible fibre e.g. grasses, barks than we later evolved to eat. I recall that toothpaste waste aggregates there if swallowed to excess as it is indigestible chalky stuff.
That could be bollox though.
Every mammal has two kidneys as do lizards although fish only have one. It must have been an evolutionary advantage in some common ancestor...perhaps because, as filters, they are more prone to clogging up? Feck knows.