3 Ways to Keep Animals Out of Your Trash
Are critters shredding your trashbags?
Your trash presents an easy meal to critters that are out on the prowl the night before your pick-up day. One whiff of your leftovers from the week before and the nearby animals are making a beeline right to your bag. It’s all bad news from there. Holes in your garbage bag, food waste strewn across the yard, paper waste blowing down the street, it’s an all-around messy situation. To make matters worse, we need to get that bag into the truck without it completely tearing the rest of the way open and dumping trash all over the ground, which is about as difficult as it sounds.
Here are three quick tips to help keep animals out of your trash.
1. Eliminate food from your waste stream
This is difficult, maybe even unrealistic for most, but it’s definitely a good way to reduce the number of critters ripping up your trash bag. Food waste is the main attractant for animals coming to a garbage bag. They’re hungry, there’s food, it’s an easy meal. Composting, using a garbage disposal for smaller scraps, and having a weekly “leftovers for dinner night” are great ways to eliminate majority of the food waste from your waste stream. However, we realize in some areas composting isn’t an option and not everyone has a garbage disposal, so options two and three may be more realistic.
2. Use a trashcan with a lid
Outside of a situation involving a bear, simply using a good trashcan with a lid can prevent animals from ripping up your trash. Place your trash bag in your trashcan, secure the lid, wa-la, it’s now significantly more difficult for animals to rip your trash bag to shreds. We recommend bagging your trash and placing it in the can versus throwing loose trash directly in the can. Bagging first helps keep your trashcan clean, extends the life of the can, seals in the scent, and reduces litter at time of disposal. If you’re looking for a good trashcan, we recommend Rubbbermaid Roughneck Cans*.
Outside of a situation involving a bear, simply using a good trashcan with a lid can prevent animals from ripping up your trash.
3. Use an animal repellant
When all else fails, or you have a bear situation, try using an animal repellant in the area where you place your trash. We’ve heard mixed results on different products, but one of the best reviewed products we’ve seen is Bonide’s Repels-All*. Could be worth a shot.
Do you have another method of keeping animals out of your trash you’d like to tell us about? Message us on Facebook to tell us!
*We are not paid to endorse these products. We just like them. That is all.