14 DAY TRIAL // Should dumpster diving ever become a real sport and should folks start organizing dumpster diving competitions, odds are American actor Anthony Mackie will win if not all, then at least most of them.
This past April 2, Anthony Mackie, who plays the heroic Falcon on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” made an appearance on The Ellen Show and, among other things, talked about his passion for collecting things that others have thrown away and putting them to better use.
While on the show, the American actor opened up to Ellen about how he came across his home in New Orleans and decided that it simply had to be his. Long story short, Anthony first laid eyes on the house while driving around with friends and broke in to have a closer look at it.
As entertaining as this story might be, what greenheads are likely to want to hear about is Anthony Mackie's long-term relationship with dumpster diving, and his use of reclaimed garbage to refurbish his home.
According to the American actor, dumpster diving is not for everybody. On the contrary, there is an art to this practice, and those who feel like going about exploring garbage bins should also do some research and make sure that they have a well put-together strategy before embarking on such quests.
“If you haven’t dumpster dived, you haven’t lived. You drive by, you see a dumpster. Circle back, make sure nobody’s looking,” Anthony told Ellen. “Go home, chill out, nighttime comes, you go back to that dumpster just look around, see what you find. One man’s trash, another man’s renovation,” he added.
The actor says that, as surprising as this may sound, the floors inside his home come from a dumpster, CB informs. What's more, Anthony used reclaimed wood to piece together his bar and even owns a bathtub that he rescued from ending up in one landfill or another.
As Anthony explained, “All of my floors, I got out of a dumpster. My entire bar, I built with wood that I got out of a dumpster from a Broadway show. My bathtub in my little guest situation, I got it out of a dumpster. It’s a really nice tub.”
The floors, the bathtub, or the bar were not on the Ellen Show this past April 2, so they did not have the chance to express their gratitude for being rescued from dumpsters. Still, there is little doubt that they much prefer living with Anthony Mackie to lying in a landfill.
As reported just yesterday, the average Joe or Jane in the United States produces some 4.38 pounds (1.98 kilograms) of garbage on a daily basis. Of this, just 34% gets recycled or composted.