I had never heard about "little free pantries" until a few days ago when I came across mention of one on a US-based friend's Facebook page. In her post she said she was finding "a thousand ways" to make her new work location and longer commute fun.

One of those ways is to stop and put items in a little free pantry at the roadside.

The free pantry looks like a little wooden cupboard with shelves and a door with glass frontage, allowing one to see the items placed within. They are similar in appearance to the little "free libraries" in some communities abroad.

I asked my friend what kinds of items people generally place in the free pantry.

"Non-perishables, like canned food, boxes of pasta, dry beans," she responded. While most people generally respect the process, sometimes someone will take the entire week's worth of food.

The tagline for "the little free pantry movement" is "Take what you need; give if you can." The concept is described as "a grassroots, crowd-sourced solution to immediate and local need. Whether a need for food or a need to give, mini pantries help feed neighbours, nourishing neighbourhoods."

I love the idea. How would it work in TT?

My mind instantly ran back in time to many years ago when a friend of mine and her team embarked upon a popular plastic collection (for recycling) initiative in Trinidad. Seventy plastic collection bins were set up west of (and inclusive of) Laventille.

[caption id="attachment_1039073" align="alignnone" width="541"] -[/caption]

I recalled my friend telling me that while of course there were "diligently conscious" people who would place the correct items in the bins, they would also sometimes find the most horrible things amidst the plastic...rotting corpses of animals, bags of faeces, bottles of urine and other unpleasant and odious items.

Contrary to what most people would think, the bins that contained putrid items were located in what society generally considers to be "elite" communities... eg Westmoorings, Blue Range, Diamond Vale, Fairways, Haleland Park (general Maraval), St Ann's.

According to my friend, in those areas, the bins would generally contain an average of only 60-70 per cent of what they were supposed to contain (cleaned, used plastic bottles and containers for recycling).

On the contrary, bins that were consistently clean and contained about 95 per cent of intended plastics were located in East Port-of-Spain – areas generally stereotyped as "rough" and "poor" – Laventille, Morvant, Sea Lots, Belmont. The five per cent of items that were not supposed to be in their plastic bins were along the lines of packaging that was not recyclable through the programme (eg Tetrapaks).

Eleven of the 70 bins were in East Port of Spain. Of those 11 bins my friend remarked that they would be "immaculate" compared to the others, and that community leaders and members seemed pleased about their bins, respected the process and were grateful for the initiative. The bins were seen as a point of pride.

Would the little free pantry concept hav