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Design vs. Critters: Toronto Orders 500,000 Raccoon-Resistant Trash Cans

Here in star-studded New York we’ve got paparazzi going through certain people’s garbage, hoping to catch a glimpse of Madonna’s medication or Liev Schreiber’s CVS receipts. But in the rest of North America, it’s raccoons that are going through the trash. As you can see here, the crafty little creatures have no problem manipulating garbage can lids: 

Secure in the knowledge that their masks will hide their identity, the brazen animals often commit their crimes in broad daylight, sometimes in gangs:

To combat this Derick Foster, Senior Industrial Designer at container manufacturer Rehrig Pacific Company, was tasked with designing a raccoon-resistant trash can lid. Here’s the EnviroGuard design he and his team came up with:

The design was good enough to snag a 10-year contract with the raccoon-plagued city of Toronto, which has ordered some 500,000 of them. Here’s what happens when a raccoon encounters one of these:

Stymied by the new cans, raccoons in the greater Toronto area are reportedly migrating elsewhere: