The following services are used within automations triggered by the garbage_collection_loaded event. Do not use them anywhere else, it won't work. For the examples of their use, see the examples

Add a date to the list of dates calculated automatically. To add multiple dates, call this service multiple times with different dates. Note that this date will be removed on the next sensor update when data is re-calculated and loaded. This is why this service should be called from the automation triggered be the event garbage_collection_loaded, that is called each time the sensor is updated. And at the end of this automation you need to call the garbage_collection.update_state service to update the sensor state based on automatically collected dates with the dates added, removed or offset by the automation.

Remove a date to the list of dates calculated automatically. To remove multiple dates, call this service multiple times with different dates. Note that this date will reappear on the next sensor update when data is re-calculated and loaded. This is why this service should be called from the automation triggered be the event garbage_collection_loaded, that is called each time the sensor is updated. And at the end of this automation you need to call the garbage_collection.update_state service to update the sensor state based on automatically collected dates with the dates added, removed or offset by the automation.

Offset the calculated collection day by the offset number of days. Note that this offset will revert back on the next sensor update when data is re-calculated and loaded. This is why this service should be called from the automation triggered be the event garbage_collection_loaded, that is called each time the sensor is updated. And at the end of this automation you need to call the garbage_collection.update_state service to update the sensor state based on automatically collected dates with the dates added, removed or offset by the automation.

Choose the next collection date from the list of dates calculated automatically, added by service calls (and not removed), and update the entity state and attributes.

This event is triggered each time a garbage_collection entity is being updated. You can create an automation to modify the collection schedule before the entity state update.

Event data:

For the example below, the entity should be configured with manual_update set to true. Then, when the garbage_collection entity is updated (normally once a day at midnight, or restart, or when triggering entity update by script), it will calculate the collection schedule for previous, current and next year. But it will NOT UPDATE the entity state. Instead, it will trigger an event garbage_collection_loaded with list of automatically calculated dates as a parameter. You will have to create an automation triggered by this event. In this automation you will need to call the service garbage_collection.update_state to update the state. Before that, you can call the servics garbage_collection.add_date and/or garbage_collection.remove_date and/or garbage_collection.offset_date to programatically tweak the dates in whatever way you need (e.g. based on values from external API sensor, comparing the dates with list of holidays, calculating custom offsets based on the day of the week etc.). This is complicated, but gives you an ultimate flexibility.

Adding an extra collection date (a fixed date in this case) - for the entity sensor.test.

alias: garbage_collection event
description: 'Manually add a collection date, then trigger entity state update.'
trigger:
  - platform: event
    event_type: garbage_collection_loaded
    event_data:
      entity_id: sensor.test
action:
  - service: garbage_collection.add_date
    data:
      entity_id: "{{ trigger.event.data.entity_id }}"
      date: '2022-01-07'
  - service: garbage_collection.update_state
    data:
      entity_id: sensor.test
mode: single

This will loop through the calculated dates, and add extra collection to a day after each calculated one. So if this is set for a collection each first Wednesday each month, it will result in a collection on first Wednesday, and the following day (kind of first Thursday, except if the week is starting on Thursday - just a random weird example :).

This example is for an entity sensor.test. If you want to use it for yours, replace it with the real entity name in the trigger.

alias: test garbage_collection event
description: 'Loop through all calculated dates, add extra collection a day after the calculate one'
trigger:
  - platform: event
    event_type: garbage_collection_loaded
    event_data:
      entity_id: sensor.test
action:
  - repeat:
      count: '{{ trigger.event.data.collection_dates | count }}'
      sequence:
        - service: garbage_collection.add_date
          data:
            entity_id: "{{ trigger.event.data.entity_id }}"
            date: >-
              {{( as_datetime(trigger.event.data.collection_dates[repeat.index-1]) + timedelta( days = 1)) | as_timestamp | timestamp_custom("%Y-%m-%d") }}
  - service: garbage_collection.update_state
    data:
      entity_id: "{{ trigger.event.data.entity_id }}"
mode: single

This is an equivalent of "holiday in week" move - checking if there is a public holiday on the calculated collection day, or in the same day before, and if yes, moving the collection by one day. This is fully custom logic, so it could be further complicated by whatever rules anyone wants. Note that this does not disable the current holiday exception handling in the integration - so if you have also configured that to move the collection, it will move it one more day. So if you want to use, configure the offset to 0 (so that the integration movves the holiday by "zero" days). Or you can configure the calendar on another entity - the automation is really using them to check the list of the dates - the list could be anywhere, does not even have to be a garbage_collection entity.

This example is for an entity sensor.test. If you want to use it for yours, replace it with the real entity name in the trigger.

alias: test garbage_collection event
description: >-
  Loop through all calculated dates, move the collection by 1 day if public holiday was in the week before or on the calculated collection date calculate one
trigger:
  - platform: event
    event_type: garbage_collection_loaded
    event_data:
      entity_id: sensor.test
action:
  - repeat:
      count: '{{ trigger.event.data.collection_dates | count }}'
      sequence:
        - condition: template
          value_template: >-
            {%- set collection_date = as_datetime(trigger.event.data.collection_dates[repeat.index-1]) %}
            {%- set ns = namespace(found=false) %}
            {%- for i in range(collection_date.weekday()+1) %}
              {%- set d = ( collection_date + timedelta( days=-i) ) | as_timestamp | timestamp_custom("%Y-%m-%d") %}
              {%- if d in state_attr(trigger.event.data.entity_id,'holidays') %}
                {%- set ns.found = true %}
              {%- endif %}
            {%- endfor %}  
            {{ ns.found }}
        - service: garbage_collection.offset_date
          data:
            entity_id: "{{ trigger.event.data.entity_id }}"
            date: '{{ trigger.event.data.collection_dates[repeat.index-1] }}'
            offset: 1
  - service: garbage_collection.update_state
    data:
      entity_id: "{{ trigger.event.data.entity_id }}"
mode: single

Or you can use the blueprints I made for you. And you are welcome to create your own and share with the others.

You can use the custom garbage collection card developped by @amaximus.

This is what I use (I like images). I use a horizontal stack of picture-entities, with card-templater plugin (Lovelace Card Templater) to show number of days:

(The state is designed to be used like traffic lights, this is why it has 3 values. You obviously cannot use this with verbose_state)

This is the configuration

      - type: 'custom:card-templater'
        card:
          type: picture-entity
          name_template: >-
            {{ state_attr('sensor.bio','days') }} days
          show_name: True
          show_state: False
          entity: sensor.bio
          state_image:
            "0": "/local/containers/bio_today.png"
            "1": "/local/containers/bio_tomorrow.png"
            "2": "/local/containers/bio_off.png"
        entities:
          - sensor.bio

The simplest visualisation is to use entities. In this case, I use verbose_state to show state as text.

Lovelace configuration

      - type: entities
        entities:
          - sensor.general_waste
          - sensor.bio
          - sensor.paper
          - sensor.plastic

Lovelace Configuration

      - type: glance
        entities:
          - sensor.general_waste