Food bin in garden being opened and thrown

[GingerIvy]

I know this isn't technically "housekeeping" but it's not really "gardening" either, so I've put it here.

I don't know what's doing it as I've not seen, but food bin has been thrown in the garden and food bags ripped open and dragged across the garden twice now. Both times the bins were locked closed, but I can only assume that they managed to fling it around by the handle and open it. The first time, there were flowerpots around it that weren't disturbed, today one flowerpot was knocked over.

The food bin and the flower pots are sitting on a wooden pallet next to my back step.

I have a locking garden shed, but I don't want to have to unlock it any time I put a bag in the food bin if I can avoid it. I have to keep the shed locked as I have ongoing problems with the neighbours (long story).

Not sure the best way to solve this - just want to keep the food bin intact and not opened and tossed about. I do not want to keep it in the house.

We have the same problem - ours is foxes. We can't come up with a solution - they are bloody clever and persistent. Have stopped using the bin for a while in the hope that they'll move onto someone else's and forget about ours. It creates such a mess we had it happen 4 times in fortnight.

I had something similar and it was my neighbour's cat, so I coated the outside of the bin with lemon juice which seemed to help.

Could you weight the lid down with a couple of heavy bricks and put something heavy in the base so it cant be tipped over ?

I don't think there is anything heavy enough without filling the entire bin. Putting things on the lid don't work - they just fall off when knocked over. If they can work out the locking mechanism, I don't think a couple of bricks are going to be the answer.

I guess I'll have to put it in my locked shed. Such a pain, but I guess that's what I have to do, unless I can come up with something else.

If it's like my food bin, it's locked when the handle is in the upright position. Could you hang it on a hook somewhere, which would keep the handle upright and therefore the bin locked?

magpies are very clever and can lern to open bins & bin locks.

Our food bin is about a foot cubed and has a handle at one side, from which the lid hinges. If you have something similar then our solution may work for you.
After several garden tidying sprees we attached strong cord to the handle and attached it to the lid of a wheely bin so it lives suspended inside another bin just outside the back door. It still opens so can be used in the usual way. We just undo the knot to put it out separately on bin day. We've had no problems with foxes since.