BCP Council skips only three days a year: Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Bins out by 5am, garden waste £71, bulky collections from £41.
The question people ask before every bank holiday has a short answer in Bournemouth. BCP Council does not move collections for bank holidays. Its rubbish and recycling pages name the only three days of the year it does not collect: Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. (BCP Council, Rubbish bin collections)
That includes the August bank holiday on Monday 31 August 2026. The recycling centres say the same thing in as many words: they are “open on bank holidays (excluding Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day)”.
What follows is the rest of the cluster: what goes in which bin, what garden waste and bulky collections cost this year, how long you have to report a missed bin, and what the tip will and will not take.
What BCP collects, and how often
| Bin | Size | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Rubbish | 180 litre black bin | Every 2 weeks |
| Recycling | 240 litre wheelie bin | Every 2 weeks, on the other week |
| Food waste | 7 litre kitchen caddy and 23 litre outdoor bin | Every week |
| Garden waste | 240 litre bin | Every 2 weeks, paid subscription only |
The rubbish bin is the smaller of the two, at 180 litres against the recycling bin’s 240. If you are on the bag alternative service you get two authorised sacks a fortnight instead of a wheeled bin.
Flats with communal bins get a 7 litre kitchen caddy each and share a 140 litre outdoor bin with a brown lid. Those shared bins stay in the bin store and are not put out.
Put your bin out by 5am. Crews work from 5am to 9pm, and garden waste collections can run until 11pm. That is much earlier than most councils and it is the single most common reason for a missed collection here.
You can look up the collection day for your address on the council’s own tool and download a calendar of dates for the year. Dates are given for the road the property is on, so if you put your bin out on a different road, look that road up instead.
Where people get it wrong
The council lists the reasons it will leave a bin behind. Every one of these is avoidable.
- the bin was not out by 5am
- the lid is not closed, or waste is piled beside the bin
- the bin is too heavy to wheel, or is compacted so the waste will not fall out
- recycling is not sorted, or contains items the council cannot take
- the garden waste bin has material in it that is not garden waste
Two Bournemouth-specific points. Recycling goes in loose, not bagged. And glass bottles and jars, Tetra Pak cartons, aerosols and foil all go in the recycling bin here, which is not true everywhere.
What the recycling bin will not take: plastic bags and wrapping, crisp packets, polystyrene, paper towels and tissues, paper cups, anything compostable or biodegradable, textiles, nappies, batteries and vapes. Broken glass, window glass and Pyrex are also out, even though bottles and jars are in.
Batteries and vapes are worth singling out. They cannot go in either kerbside bin, and they start fires in collection lorries. They go to a recycling centre.
Missed collections: two days to report, five to fix
The window is tight and the council enforces it.
- Do not report on the day. Crews are out until 9pm, so wait until the next working day.
- Do not report if the whole road was missed. The council already knows, and affected roads go on its published missed bin list.
- You have 2 working days from your usual collection day to report it.
- The council aims to return within 5 working days of the report.
- Leave the bin out until they come back.
If the bin was not put out correctly in the first place, they will not return for it.
Food waste has its own catch. It is collected on the same day as rubbish and recycling but by a separate crew, and the council asks you to put the small container somewhere visible because it is easy to miss. (BCP Council, Report a missed bin collection)
Garden waste costs £71
Garden waste is a paid subscription in Bournemouth and it is not year-round.
- £71 per bin for the 2026 service
- Collections run fortnightly from 26 January 2026 to the week ending 11 December 2026
- The price is the same whenever you join. There is no reduced rate for signing up part way through
- Bins are 240 litres
Two things changed. The council no longer sends a calendar or a sticker for the bin. Crews hold the list of subscribed addresses and collect only from those, so an unstickered bin is fine and a stickered one at an unpaid address is not.
Timing matters if you are joining. Apply or renew before 31 December and the bin arrives before the service year starts. Apply after that and it takes up to 20 working days. (BCP Council, Apply for the garden waste service)
Bulky collections: £41 then £11
The council charges £41 for the first item and £11 for each item after that. Its own worked examples: a single bed with a mattress is £52, a three-piece suite is £63.
Rules that catch people out:
- items must be outside and reachable before 7.30am on collection day
- everything must be empty, clean, dry, freestanding and dismantled if needed
- anything left outside and now wet will not be taken, and there is no refund
- once you have paid you cannot add or remove items
- a refund needs at least 2 working days’ notice
- more than 10 items needs a phone call, not the online form
The council will not take DIY waste, soil or rubble, tyres, vehicle parts, soiled or dirty furniture and mattresses, anything over 3 metres long, or anything two people cannot carry. Nor will it collect for landlords or businesses.
Before paying £41, the council suggests trying Freegle or Freecycle, or a charity collection from the British Heart Foundation, Julia’s House, Age UK or Sue Ryder. If you are buying a replacement appliance, the retailer will often take the old one. (BCP Council, Book a bulky waste collection)
Bournemouth Recycling Centre
Ringwood Road, Bournemouth, BH11 9LQ.
- April to September: 9am to 5pm, seven days
- October to March: 9am to 4pm, seven days
- Open on bank holidays, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day
- Last entry is 15 minutes before closing
- No booking needed
Take proof you live in the BCP area: a council tax bill, a photocard driving licence or a utility bill with your name and address. Residents can also use the Christchurch and Poole centres.
Vans need a valid permit or a hire agreement of no more than three days. Trailers are capped at 6ft by 4ft, and a vehicle that needs a permit cannot bring a trailer at all. Vans over 3.5 tonnes, Luton boxes, flatbeds, tippers and horse boxes are turned away.
DIY waste is free once a week, then charged. The free allowance is one visit per household per week, and it is either two 50-litre bags of DIY waste or one large item up to 200cm by 75cm, such as a shower screen or a toilet and cistern.
Over the allowance, the charges are:
| Material | Charge |
|---|---|
| Soil | £2.80 per bag or item |
| Hardcore and rubble | £2.80 per bag or item |
| Flat glass | £3.70 per bag, £11 per sheet |
| Plasterboard | £4.50 per bag, £18 per sheet |
| Asbestos (bonded, double wrapped) | £10.50 per bag, £21 per sheet |
| Tyres including rims | £13.50 each |
| Gas canisters and fire extinguishers | £13 up to 10kg, £30 up to 20kg, £70 over 20kg |
A “bag” means a rubble bag no larger than 535mm by 820mm. Bicycle tyres are free. Payment is by card or contactless, and American Express is not accepted.
The centre does take some things the kerbside bins will not: textiles, books, batteries, light bulbs, paint and garden chemicals, cooking oil, up to 10 litres of fuel in its own container, mattresses, white goods, coffee pods and single-use vapes with the battery removed from mods.
It will not take clinical waste, hypodermic needles, ammunition, flares, car or caravan parts, or construction waste from a large job.
New and replacement bins
A replacement bin is £45 for a rubbish bin and £55 for a recycling bin. Food waste containers and kitchen caddies are free.
If you receive Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit Guarantee Credit, Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support, a replacement bin can be free. You need to show evidence of the benefit.
The council warns that bin deliveries are currently taking 30 to 40 days.
Christmas and New Year
The only real disruption to the Bournemouth calendar is the fortnight around Christmas. Last time round the council skipped Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and ran catch-up collections from 29 December through to 17 January, with a published table matching each normal day to its replacement date.
Recycling centres closed on those three days and shut at 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Skips, bin deliveries and bulky collections stopped for the period. (BCP Council, Festive bin collections changes)
The 2026/27 dates are not published yet. Last year’s full table and what to expect this year are on our Bournemouth Christmas bin collections page, and all three tips are on Bournemouth tip opening times.
Also on this site
Every charge on this page was checked against BCP Council’s own pages on 26 August 2026.
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