Trash Talk

When I was young and still living at home, I would sometimes walk with my mother around our suburban neighbourhood near Ottawa. During the week, she timed her walks to start after the letter carrier had already made his rounds. As she went, my mother would pick up the dozens of elastic bands that he often casually discarded on the road. When we returned home, she would sit at the kitchen table and cut these thick loops of rubber lengthwise — in order to double their number — and then put them in a kitchen drawer, beside boxes that contained twist‑ties, bread clips, pens and pencils, as well as small pieces of paper, saved from used envelopes, that she repurposed for making lists. When I asked her why she did all this, she would reply simply: “Waste not, want not.”

This was in the 1980s, a decade of hyper­consumerism, bigger is better, and seemingly limitless supplies of energy. My...