Raccoon-Proof Green Bins: Fact or Fiction? (Part 2)

Three additional solutions worth considering:

1. Provide other food sources for local raccoons. We maintain bowls of kibble for stray cats, which the raccoons share. Why not think of raccoons as our urban avatars / commensals rather than as pests? It's a gentle charity to provide food.

2. Eat less meat, or wrap it to reduce odours.

3. Start (or resume) using a backyard composter. It's easy, efficient, more ecologically responsible, and less likely to attract pests.

We live in a high density raccoon neighbourhood, and yet our green bin has been scavenged only once or twice (most notably after a garden party involving plenty of barbecued meat). We don't even secure the latch.

The raccoons in our neighbourhood gnaw through bungee cords, so it doesn't matter how you arrange the cords, but rather how often you replace them.

From a pest-control point-of-view, it doesn't matter whether you put your meat in your green bin or your composter, they'll smell it and try to get it out. I find the green bin easier to secure, so what meat scraps we do generate end up there. It also keeps the flies from growing their maggots in the composter, and the wasps from coming by to parasitize the maggots.

We haven't fed stray cats ever since we inadvertently temporarily adopted one, who compared the barbecued salmon we were serving to the dried cat food back home and moved out. We don't feed raccoons because they are not housetrained, and I don't like scooping their poop.

One important recent development to my anti-raccoon arsenal above, by the way: they've figured out how to slip the clip straps loose, so I'm going to have to cinch them and then staple them tight, or maybe put another bolt through the strap where it's doubled.

I get raccoon visits daily - they even wait for us to put stuff into the green bin and then try to get in. It took the raccoons in myarea less than a week to figure out how to open the green bin and now they open it in seconds. The only things the work, other than keeping the bins in a locked facility are various combinations of bungee cords. What I don't undertand is why the city continues to give out the existing green bins. Why don't they finally hand out a better designed bin, as replacements for broken bins? 

I have written to both my Councillor and the Mayor and the answer that I get from them and Solid Waste Management is that they rarely get complaints about raccoons. They have told me that I am one of the few people with a problem. 

I don't undertsand why everyone is just accepting another very poor implementation by Solid Waste Management staff and their team of consultants. You realize that we paid a team of consultants tens of thousands of dollars to develop the Green Bin, ensure that it was Raccoon proof, do a pilot project and then survey the people who participated in the pilot. According to their survey their were no problems with raccoons getting into the green bin. I have some friends who participated in the pilot and they told me just the opposite. So it looks like the consultants tailored the survey to get the answer they wanted, which was that the bin that they had designed was raccoon proof. We all know that it is not.

Do you realize that these consulatnts were never held accountable for their mistake? Do you realize that Solid Waste Management continues to hire consultants and never holds them responsible for the quality of their work?

We need to ensure that all city management staff and consultants are held accountable. If we don't, then these people will continue to waste our money and continue to have to raise taxes to pay for their mistakes.

Everyone should write their councillor and the mayor and make this an issue. We need to ensure that these types of mistakes don't keep happening, unless of course you don't mind paying an increased portion of your take home pay for the mistakes made by the politicians and senior management. 

The manufacturer of the green bin is Norseman Plastics. The Product Line Manager is Doug Hill dhill@norsemanplastics.com and the CEO is Walter Raghunathan walter@norsemanplastics.com.

You should let both of these gentlemen know what you think of their product.  

I am an old retired guy, an amateur naturalist, who has been trying to keep raccoons out of his garbage for some time. They are a marvelous little creature, admirably evolved for a life along the creek. For instance, my hot tub lid collects water. So Rainbow, as my daughter christened one of our local raccoons, probes around in it
like any other puddle, and being armed with sharp claws and genetic raccoon behaviour, manages to dig a hole in it and starts pulling out all the insulation. Rainbow was absolutely certain that there had to be a crayfish, worm or clam in there someplace!
Four years ago, Rainbow managed to move into our under back deck apartment. We stalked him and with a hot-dog baited trap, caught him. Being good naturalists, we drove him to Todmorton Mills near the Bayview, where there is a nice creek for raccoons and a good art school as well.
The next night, my wife noticed that even though it was dark outside, the little birds were still chirping. However, it seemed to be coming from under our back deck. We spent the next day dropping food through the cracks to our three new responsibilities and figuring out
how to get the deck apart. Should we call the Humane Society? The Fire Department? However, all our problems were solved that night: Mrs. Rainbow came back. We figure she must have used radar, the better way, or the secret Raccoon Nature Trails because we live near Woodbine and Queen. We opened a little doorway and waited 3 years to humanely evict them.
Finally, they all moved out and, using, concrete, stone, brick, heavy wire screening, lots of wood and sweat, I sealed all entrances, exits, etc. to the back under deck apartment. While cleaning up, I found an
awful mess, including what looked like a dead squirrel.

Later, being a nerdy librarian and a naturally curious person, I looked up Prociyon lotor (raccoon) on Wikipedia. I am always looking up things - comes from having a secret identity as a Reference Libarian.

I found it ineresting until I found Raccoon Roundworm.

Look it up. You will never think about raccoons the same way again.

I have a new product that keeps out raccoon and other critters. It is new on the market.

http://www.oscarnet.ca

It works!

I've tried the oscarnet! It saved my yard! it's definitly worth trying. i was always cleaning up after the animals, i got my oscar net a month ago and havent had a problem since.