@Lynne-0 What a good thing you're doing. There's no bears where I live now in Mexico, but there sure were where I lived in Canada.
Once when I lived in Canada, on the west coast, some friends and I were cross-country skiing, and had just gotten back to the car. There were a couple of baby bears off the side of the road, at the edge of the bush. A carload of German tourists pulled up behind us, got out and started snapping photos of the cubs. They kept walking closer and closer to the cubs until we shouted out for them to back away, the mother bear would be quite nearby and would attack them. Their eyes got big, they said thank you and scurried back to the car and locked the doors. They seemed to think they were in Disneyland and the cubs were there for their amusement.
It's not just the garbage issue- most people have no idea how to act when confronted by a wild animal.