Harlow Bindicator
Bin-day reminders for Harlow collection schedules.
Problem
Bin collections are the kind of recurring task that is easy to forget and annoying to recover from. I wanted a small automation that could check the Harlow collection schedule and notify me before the right bins needed to go out.
Approach
Harlow Bindicator used a UPRN to retrieve collection data from the Harlow Local Authority website. It ran through a Python CLI, used browser automation and parsing to extract collection details, and sent notifications through ntfy.sh.
The tool could run locally, from cron, or as a scheduled GitHub Action with the UPRN and notification topic stored as secrets.
Result
The project worked well enough to become a hands-off household utility. It has since been retired in favour of a Home Assistant integration and dashboard card, but it remains a useful example of a small automation that solved one narrow problem directly.