Haha, that's a bizarre, and significantly incorrect, explanation they gave you...
The developer never leaves the developer assembly, except as waste to the waste container. Not in a properly operating system, anyway. The developer does indeed "carry" the toner, on a magnetic roll which is part of the developer assembly, and that roll come in close proximity to the drum. The toner being charged one way and the drum being charged another (thanks to being bombarded by the laser) causes the toner to "jump" from the weak grip of the developer on the magnetic roller onto the drum, in those areas which the laser unit charged only, of course. The magnetics of the roll and developer prevent the developer from jumping as well. (Not that it would in a normal situation. Each particle of developer is an order of magnitude heavier than each particle of toner.)
Once the toner is on the drum, the drum then rotated to come in contact with the accumulator belt. Again, static charges are used to cause the toner to transfer from the drum onto the belt. (This time they are in direct contact. No jumping.) A little bit of residual toner is left behind on the drum and this is cleaned off by a wiper blade and after a long trek makes its way to the waste container.
Once all four colors are collected on the belt, the complete image is then transferred to the paper again with static charges, this time between the belt and the 2nd BTR roller. The 2nd BTR roller is "pulling" the toner towards itself, but the machine slips a piece of paper in there first, so the paper gets it. (Again, direct contact, no jumping.) Once again, a little residual toner is left behind on the belt, it isn't a "perfect" transfer" and this also makes it to the waste container.
Toner occasionally gets onto the 2nd BTR roller, too, and it has a brush and a wiper blade to clean itself. The toner it cleans, however, stays inside the cavity of the 2nd BTR assembly. It isn't plumbed to the waste container.
To answer the original question, the developer and toner are mixed in the cartridge and fed together. The ratio of toner to developer is specific, but it can be fed in unevenly (since it is just loosely mixed in the cartridge) but this doesn't cause problems. To avoid developer build up in the developer assembly, a little bit of developer is sloughed off continuously, to the waste container. There is no way for the machine to differentiate between worn developer and new developer, so sometimes it is new stuff that gets dumped, but with a continuous supply coming in, it is still much much longer lasting.
Developer particles don't lose their magnetic properties, though that is commonly believed to be the reason they stop working well. The real reason is that they are very spiky, with lots of points and edges, when they are new. This gives lots of specific points for toner particles to "stick" to. As developer ages, abrasion of constantly going round and round smoothes them out and with fewer sharp edges and spikes, they can't carry as much toner, or as well. Yet they still take just just as much "space" in the dev assembly. Transfer quality is more affected the smoother it gets.
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