Recycling and rubbish over Christmas & new year

Collection days are changing over Christmas and new year. If you have kerbside collections, please put your refuse and recycling out on…  

Recycling and rubbish collections return to usual days from Monday 11 January.

Check your next collection days with your postcode and download your 2021 collection calendar if you have fortnightly recycling.

If we miss you, please leave your recycling and rubbish out and we'll pick it up as soon as we can.

Garden waste

There are no garden waste collections between Monday 21 December and Friday 1 January. Garden waste collections start again on usual days from Monday 4 January.

Recycle this Christmas! 

Christmas trees 

Christmas tree recycling sites across the city will be open from Tuesday 29 December until Monday 11 January. Please remove all decorations and the pot before leaving your tree.

Some of our collection sites have changed, so please check the latest information. Please only leave trees in the allocated sites - trees left anywhere else, including beside communal bins, will be fly-tipping and you could be fined.

• Check your nearest Christmas tree recycling site 

We’re also teaming up this festive season with children’s hospice Chestnut Tree House and UK charity Just Helping for a special Christmas tree recycling scheme.

For a donation, Chestnut Tree House will collect your Christmas tree from your home between 9 and 12 January, all done in a Covid-secure way.

• Sign up through Just Helping to help raise much needed funds this Christmas, between now and Wednesday 6 January 2021.

Food and drink containers 

Plastic bottles can go straight in your recycling box or bin, washed and squashed.

Rinsed drink cans and food tins can also go in your recycling, along with egg boxes, cardboard sleeves for food packaging and all tin biscuit boxes. 

Please keep all glass bottles and jars in a separate recycling box so glass doesn’t contaminate the other materials.

Wrapping paper and cards

Please only recycle wrapping paper and plain Christmas cards - foil or paper covered in glitter can’t be recycled. 

Cardboard boxes

The increase in online orders this year has meant a lot more boxes for us to collect! Please flatten all your cardboard to make space in your recycling bins and boxes.

Batteries

Please recycle used batteries at your local supermarket or our household recycling sites. Do not put them in your household waste or recycling.

Batteries thrown into ordinary bins, household waste or with other recycling are extremely dangerous as they can explode and cause fires.

Household waste recycling sites

You can also take your recycling to a community recycling point or one of the city’s two household recycling sites. The opening times over Christmas and New Year are:

• Christmas Eve – open 8am to 1pm
• Christmas Day and Boxing Day – closed
• Sunday 27 December – Brighton open 9am to 5pm, Hove open 10.30am to 1.30pm
• Monday 28 December – Brighton open 9am to 5pm, Hove closed
• Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 December – open 8am to 4.30pm
• New Years’ Eve – open 8am to 1pm
• New Year's Day – closed

The sites return to the current opening times listed on the household waste recycling sites webpage from Saturday 2 January. 

More about recycling

• For all you need to know about recycling in the city, visit our A-Z of recycling.