'Waste not, want not' isn't a bad idea these days.(THE LAST LAUGH)

Today's economy rewards those who repair, resell, recycle and restore, not those who senselessly consume.

Genetic roots

Growing up in my family, recycling was a way of life. My parents had survived the Great Depression, and my father especially believed in the idea of "waste not, want not." Consequently our basement was filled with so many boxes of broken or castoff items that I was obliged to stack them to the rafters ... to create my indoor roller skating track.

When my sister and I cleaned out our dead father's place--a house plus seven sheds and two rented barns--it filled six of the biggest dumpsters and took more than a year. We'd pick up an object, say "Waste not, want not" and then toss it out.

Last summer I learned that my brother had been notorious for his insistence on recycling and had been called "an environmentalist" for decades. He recylcled dishwater to feed the roses, reused his dental floss with rounds of wood he'd split into perfectly sized chunks. I'm glad that at his memorial service, his father's historic lessons of frugality were interpreted as those of today's green movement.

My sister recycles by opening her stash of unappreciated gifts she's received to friends and relatives, who are invited to adopt whatever calls to them. When I removed the 1970s trash compactor from my "new" condo's kitchen, she recycled it to replace her dead one of the same vintage. I don't know what she does with coffee grounds.

Mission creep