Raccoons got into the trash again and it's all over the driveway

He looked at me like I was the one who didn't belong. — Homeowner in a bathrobe, 2015

Toronto has been called the raccoon capital of the world. In 2016 the city spent 31 million Canadian dollars on nearly half a million green bins with a German-made lock. Test raccoons went at the prototype, and none got in. Then the bins went out onto real streets, and some raccoons got into those too. The blame went to loose latches and a faulty handle. Your own can gets the cheap version: a bungee cord run from the lid handle down to the side handles. It usually holds. The city paid a lot more for usually.

For now: keep the can in a garage or shed, and set it out the morning of pickup, not the night before.

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The lock is clever. It fastens by itself when the lid closes, and it lets the truck's robotic arm open the bin, so the crew needs no key. The old bin had a plain latch. The new one is also bigger, 100 litres against 46.5.

An animal behaviorist tracked the weight of raccoons that had died, to see whether the new bins were starving the city's population. Her verdict, so far: "Not starving to death, that's for sure."

At home, the advice comes in layers. Start with a can of metal or tough plastic, and a lid that's tied, clamped or wired shut. If the raccoons tip the can over to work the lid loose, put a few bricks in the bottom, or tie the whole can to a post. Freeze the smelly scraps, fish especially, until pickup. And if you use a bungee, take it off on pickup morning.

One big animal-welfare group puts it this way: "it's not a raccoon problem; it's a trash problem." Fair enough. The raccoon still did the spreading.