I believe this was actually voted on to be able to leave your cans right outside of the gate when we had the different trash days because people were complaining of having to pull out one can to get to the other and such and it was voted AGAINST being able to do that. So obviously enough of the general community felt that they did not want the cans outside of the gate enough to change that CC&R and that was not very long ago.
There's a bigger chance that your neighbor or someone on your street or someone just driving by is e-mailing or calling the HOA regarding it versus the HOA actually seeing it. Yes they do go around however if someone on your street is upset by it I'd say it's probably more likely that a resident has complained versus the HOA actually having noticed it.
You're not being singled out, but if everyone decided they weren't going to follow the rules they didn't like then truthfully where would that leave us? Both cans go out on the same day now, so where's the harm in putting both cans behind your gate to help keep the community a little nicer and to teach our kids we need to follow rules?