Yup. It's true. Vermont has black bears (along with other varmints that love to get into trash). Because of that, you definitely do not want to leave your trash outside in anything other than a bear proof bin or else you might get some unexpected visitors and wake up to a big mess in the morning.
The tricky thing is that bear proof dumpsters have to be hard enough to get into that... a bear can't get into them. So they are actually a little tricky to open.
To open the bin, put your hand into the handle on top like this:
Your fingers will hit a metal piece at the top. Now push your hand up and away -- pushing against that piece of metal. That will open the latch.
Once you have done that, keep pushing up and simultaneously lift the door up.
Its a hard move to do (turns out bears are pretty good at getting anything else open!). But when you do it, you'll know that you are smarter than the average bear.
