Raccoon-resistant green bin? More like 'raccoon-friendly,' Scarborough man says

More than two years after Toronto's mayortoutedthe city's new green bins asan "ingenious"new weapon in the battle against raccoons, a man in Scarboroughhas written to John Tory sayingthe sneaky critters continue to best the bins on his street.

Alan Somerset saysfor the last three garbage collection days, his greenbinhasbeen knocked over with compostscattered all overhis driveway. He says the same thing has happened to some of his neighbours.

After cleaning up the latest mess on Thursday, he decided to write anemailto Tory.

"I had hope that the bins would help to restore the balance between the power of the raccoon and the power of the homeowner," he told CBC Toronto Friday."But it turns out the ball is back in our court, and the raccoons once again have the upper hand."

The new green bins have a latch on the lid thathasto be twisted at a 90-degree angle. Somerset said the animals have managed to dislodge the latch just enough to be able to openthe bin.

He pointed to teeth marks on the latch, saying he suspects the raccoonsmay be using their mouths to twist the handle.

• Raccoon-resistant green bins latest weapon in Toronto's compost battle

"The bins are not raccoon proof they're not even raccoon-resistant," Somerset told CBC Toronto."They're raccoon-friendly. Maybe even raccoon-ready."

For now, he's prepared to hold the lid closed with a bungeecorduntil the garbage truck comes by.

Check out Toronto's latest weapon in the war on 'raccoon nation'

8 years ago

Duration 2:04

Toronto's putting its raccoons on a diet as the city begins rolling out new green bins next week that are designed to lock out the perennial compost bandits.

'It's not a big complaint,' city says

The city says it has rolled out 400,000 binsso farand hasreceivedonly 15 complaints.

JimMcKay, general manager of solid waste management services, saysa team investigates each complaint. More often than not, he said, the issue is a faulty bin one where a screw has come loose in the latch, for example.

The city says it will repair or replace any faulty bins.

"So far we haven't actually found any that we can confirm 100 per cent that a raccoon's actually gotten into them," he said.

"In our eyes, it's not a big complaint at all right now."

McKay said the rollout of the new green bins is about 85 per cent complete. The goal is to finish delivery by November.