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Arrrrr! Talk Like a Pirate Day is here once again. Popular on college campuses and social networking sites, the annual event has ballooned into an international phenomena and has even attracted the attention of Pulitzer Prize winners like Dave Barry. However, short of emulating eco-pirates, which might be controversial to say the least, or watching a Whale Wars marathon, it's hard to put a green spin on the event dubbed an "excuse to party like pirates."
Enter Dumpster Dive Like a Pirate Day, the event that asks you to get green and loot your neighborhood trash bins. Of course, there is no firm historical evidence that pirates practiced dumpster diving but they did love to pillage and digging into the trash is the best eco-friendly, modern, equivalent to plundering.
Dumpster diving, for the uninitiated, is the practice of digging through the garbage to find still-usable items. If you jump into the bags behind a grocery store or restaurant, you will probably find a lot of perfectly edible food. Check the back of a bookstore and there will likely be piles of lightly-damaged books. Go digging in the bins behind a college dorm and there is no telling what you will find.
It may sound a little gross, and at times it can be, but you will feel an unmatchable sense of accomplishment when you pull that perfectly-ripe-not-even-bruised mango, or the never-worn designer dress, out of the trash. Plus, there is nothing greener than finding treasure among other's trash. In fact, if the people who had thrown these treasures away saw how great they were, they would probably consider dumpster diving stealing.
Note: It's advisable you make sure that your dives are, in fact, not considered stealing. Check local laws and read any posted signs before you lift that lid. Consuming food you have found in a trash bin should be done at your own risk. We, unfortunately, do not have the sea-hardened stomachs of our buccaneering forefathers.
While it is unlikely to find the popular following of the more care-free original, and probably won't be promoted by prize-winning humorists, Dumpster Dive Like a Pirate Day is a great excuse to get frugal and green this weekend.
Dumpsters HO!
Read more about dumpster diving:
Extreme Recycling: The Art of Dumpster Diving, Real and Virtual
How I Fed a Family of 12 on 20 Bucks a Week or Less
How to Dumpster Dive
Zen and the Art of Dumpster Diving
Read more about green holidays:
How to Go Green: Holidays
Planet Green's Holiday Archive
Emeril Green: Home for the Holidays
