Putting empty bins back on cars is much easier than hauling them full from behind house, so that system is a win already. How to convince trash collectors - maybe put a small sign ("Put back bins on platforms for some fun") and when platforms detect that all bins are put back and empty - play some fanfares and make train go back? A little fun for collectors never hurts.

The speed at which the trash collectors I have seen work means that they would likely not care a bit about putting the cans back in the plates, much less be entertained watching a train take them away.

You still have collectors? In my, not especially large town, we’ve had the robot hydraulic arm things for almost a decade.

I can remember 20 years ago they not only coll cred by hand but for not that much extra per month they’d even walk back and pull them down.

>Putting empty bins back on cars is much easier

Not according to the collection employees that pick up in my neighborhood. Not once have the bins ever been put back in any manner other than "just throw the damn thing where ever".

I meant ".. easier for owner than hauling full bins from backyard". It depends on locality, in my town it's not a problem, collectors even put them back inside fence for some older people. If you can find some incentive for collectors for putting bins back on platforms, maybe they would put them back.

Indeed. Here I'm lucky if the bin is no further than my next door neighbour.

Fully automating the process in some way would at least spare you from your neighbors loading up the recycling bin you've left by the road with dog waste bags.

The way I understand it, this system does not take the bins all the way to the curb where they get picked up. It just takes the bins close to the curb, you still have to move them off the moving platforms manually, and on again after they have been emptied.

Usually, the different recycling bins do not get emptied on the same day, so it would not make sense to put all of them out for pickup. The purpose of this system (I think) is just to make it easier to get the bins from beside the house (where they're usually stored) to the front of the house (from where they can be put out on the curb more easily).

Where I live they use large automatic arm that just puts the bin back down where it was before.

That wouldn't reach the end of his track. Probably he rolls out the bins they mean to collect that day, and puts them back himself.