I mean, that's easy enough if you're trying to catch the ball with your face. Usually that's not the goal, so you’ll be standing slightly to the side or the object is moving toward your stomach. ;)

Even then, that's discounting the whole image analysis part of the equation, which your brain does dozens of times per second with incredible accuracy. Your waste bin example would have had to do enough to differentiate the ball from the background, and that definitely qualifies as a complex algorithm.

ETA: also, closing your hand at the right time does require your brain to know how close the object is, not just that you've positioned yourself in its path.