Retiring the Harlow Bindicator

For years I ran a small project called the Harlow Bindicator, which kept track of when the bins were due to go out. It was lightweight, functional, and solved a problem I had at the time. But as my Home Assistant setup has matured, I’ve been moving away from ad-hoc scripts and one-off solutions. I wanted something that was easier to maintain, better integrated with my dashboards, and flexible enough to handle different waste streams without additional effort.

That’s why I’ve retired the Bindicator in favour of Waste Collection Schedule, a Home Assistant integration developed by Steffen Zimmermann. It’s available via HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) and it feels like a natural part of the Home Assistant ecosystem.

Why I Made the Switch

The Bindicator served me well, but it had some limitations:

• It required ongoing maintenance to keep collection dates accurate.
• Adding new waste streams like food waste, recycling, and garden bins became awkward.
• It never fully integrated with my dashboards, so I had to create separate sensors and cards to display the information.

Waste Collection Schedule solves all of these problems. It provides sensors and calendar entities for each waste type, with clear next-pickup dates that can be used across dashboards and automations. It’s a more complete, long-term solution.

Waste Collection Schedule in Practice

The setup was straightforward through HACS. Once configured, the integration automatically creates entities for each type of waste I want to track. These entities expose the next collection date, how many days remain, and calendar entries that I can use directly in automations or Lovelace dashboards.

The biggest advantage here is that everything now runs natively inside Home Assistant. There’s no separate script or external data source to maintain. It simply works, and it keeps working.

Displaying Collections with TrashCard

While the integration itself provides the data, I wanted a clean way to show it on my dashboards. That’s where TrashCard, created by Idaho, comes in. This card is also available via HACS and is purpose-built to display waste collection information.

TrashCard looks at the calendar entities created by Waste Collection Schedule and presents them as clear, attractive tiles. Each waste stream has its own entry with an icon, due date, and countdown. It fits perfectly alongside my other Home Assistant cards and gives me at-a-glance visibility of upcoming collections without digging through logs or calendars.

Automations and Notifications

Now that the data is exposed as proper entities, automations become simple. A few I’ve already implemented:

• A mobile notification the evening before a scheduled collection.
• A light blink on the porch as a subtle reminder to take the bins out.
• Dashboard tiles showing a countdown to the next collection, all handled by TrashCard.

Because it’s integrated into Home Assistant, I can extend this further whenever I like without reworking the core logic.

Closing a Chapter

The Harlow Bindicator was a useful project, and it did the job for a long time. But the move to Waste Collection Schedule, paired with TrashCard, is a clear improvement. It’s cleaner, easier to maintain, and gives me more flexibility for future automations.

If you’re looking for a reliable way to manage waste collection reminders in Home Assistant, I highly recommend this combination. My thanks go to Steffen Zimmermann and Idaho for creating and maintaining these excellent tools.

Another small step in refining my smart home setup: retiring custom scripts in favour of community-supported integrations that are built to last.