The city’s raccoon population may find food harder to come by starting this week.

City crews began delivering new raccoon-resistant green bins to homes in Scarborough on Wednesday. Once delivered to all Scarborough residents, the bins will be delivered in Etobicoke followed by North York and Toronto/East York.

The bins, which were approved by council las April, feature a locking mechanism that is unlocked when lifted at a 110 degree angle. That should allow garbage trucks to easily dump the bins while making it much harder, if not impossible, for crafty raccoons to do the same.

“I think think this technology is genius and I think it works quite effectively,” Mayor John Tory said after participating in a demonstration with one of the new bins at an address on Agincourt Drive in Scarborough Thursday. “For it not to work raccoons are going to have to be able to lift these bins up and hold them upside down and while I will give them credit I am not prepared to say they will be able to do that.”

The 100-litre bins will replace a 46.5-litre model that was rolled out between 2002 and 2005 and is now approaching the end of its life span.

While it is likely that the new technology will frustrate many raccoons and even leave some less nourished, Tory told reporters on Thursday that they won’t find any sympathy at city hall.

“If they have a bit of a problem with their diet that is their problem,” he said.