Comment by notatoad
4 years ago
i know these youtube maker projects aren't really meant to be practical, but the fact that his trash pickup is only monthly just makes this absolutely hilarious to me. all this work to avoid putting the bins out once a month
This system is used every time you need to access the bins (i.e. every other day), since the final location is not as accessible. Trash goes from your kitchen to the bins every other day. Collection happens monthly.
This is not true. He says in the video and the comments that it is used once per month.
Even more than that - he seemingly still needs to take each bin off the train and put it on the curb and then put it back.
Their audience takes out trash at least twice a week. If it wasn't physically impossible for this to work where I live, I would be sourcing parts right now.
With the missed opportunity cost being so high, I too would want to ensure my bins went out automatically no matter what. Hooking the control unit up to the city’s trash schedule would be the next logical step.
Usually the different types of bins are not emptied on the same day, so for paper, plastic, organic and other it's four times every month ;)
Relevant https://xkcd.com/1205/
So five hours invested in the project would break even for him after five years. Probably not worth it from the time saved perspective, but the experience was likely worth it. Plus the youtube video will likely bring in some income, and he'll likely miss less monthly trash pickups.
If it's was automated correctly (I don't think his is, but it could be ) not missing a pickup day makes it worth it.
Yeah but you have to put a lot of them out at once.