Having to stick your hand into a hidden handle on a public trash can…eww.

Seems like a straight pushing job, so you could probably get away with using a stick. But someone who has used one of these may want to chime in.

I have used one of these cans. It is a straight push. You should accomplish it with a strong and properly sized stick.

If it can be opened with a stick, then a bear could probably work out how to open it with a stick

That's not how any of this works lol.

A crow could do it if it was big enough.

If my granny had wheels she would be a bike.

"A bear training crow to help open trash cans spotted in local forest"

Read the directions. There is an inner latch that must be manipulated

The directions just say "push inner latch forward" which sounds feasible with a stick - unless it's more complicated than that makes it sound?

Wow, they're using one-latch bins now? As far as I can recall from back when I cycled through the Rockies in the summer of 2000, the bins in the national parks all had two such latches that needed to be operated simultaneously to open the lid.

Maybe that design proved too challenging for the tourists.

The same exist in US parks, including Yosemite.