Bracknell Christmas Bin Collections 2026: The Revised Days

Bracknell Forest Council has now published its Christmas and New Year collection dates for 2026/27. They are printed on the new November 2026 to October 2027 calendars on every schedule page, which were not online when we first wrote this page on 25 September and were there when we checked on 15 October 2026 (Bracknell Forest Council, bin collection schedules). The full revised table is below, followed by last year’s for comparison.

The quick answer

Collections run as normal up to and including Thursday 24 December 2026. From Christmas Day every round moves to a later day: Friday 25 December goes to Monday 28 December, Thursday 31 December jumps to Saturday 2 January, and the catch-up ends with Friday 8 January’s round on Saturday 9 January. Everything is back to normal from Monday 11 January 2027. There is no garden waste collection from 29 December until 11 January. The tip at Longshot Lane closes at 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and is shut on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Bracknell Christmas bin collections 2026: the revised days

This is the council’s table, the same on every schedule (Bracknell Forest Council, schedule 1 calendar November 2026 to October 2027, PDF). Food, recycling and general waste collections continue as normal up to and including 24 December.

The disruption is shorter than last year’s. In 2025 the knock-on ran to Saturday 17 January; this time it ends on Saturday 9 January. The one big jump is for Thursday households, whose 31 December collection skips New Year’s Day and lands on the Saturday.

What is already settled for this Christmas

Three things are fixed before the council says a word.

• The bank holidays. Christmas Day is Friday 25 December 2026, the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to a substitute Monday 28 December, and New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK bank holidays). Two Fridays and a Monday is three disrupted collection weeks in a row.
• The normal rule for bank holiday weeks. Bracknell Forest’s printed calendar says collections run one day late in any week containing a bank holiday Monday, with Friday rounds done on the Saturday (Bracknell Forest Council, schedule 1 calendar 2025/26, PDF). Christmas is the one time the council writes a separate table instead.
• The recycling centre hours. re3 says both its sites, Longshot Lane and Smallmead, close at 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and do not open on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day (re3, site facilities). Winter hours of 8am to 6pm apply from 1 October. See our tip opening times page for the booking rule.

Last year’s pattern, and it is only a guide

For comparison, this was Christmas 2025. These are not this year’s dates; use the 2026 table above.

The calendar said food, recycling and refuse collections would continue as normal up to and including 24 December, then run to this revised table (Bracknell Forest Council, schedule 1 calendar 2025/26, PDF).

Two things stand out. The delay grew to two working days for anyone with a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday round in the week after Christmas, because Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both fell on a Thursday. And the knock-on ran for three and a half weeks: a Friday household’s last late collection was on Saturday 17 January.

This year the two bank holidays fall on Fridays, with the substitute Boxing Day on Monday 28 December, so the catch-up is a week shorter. Do not put a bin out on a date from the 2025 table.

Which bins go out in the Christmas weeks

Your Christmas weeks are not special for what goes out, only for when. Bracknell Forest empties the green general waste bin every three weeks, the blue recycling bin every two weeks and the food caddy every week, and each household sits on one of six schedules that fix which bins are due in which week (Bracknell Forest Council, schedule 1 bin collections). The council now lists 13 schedules, adding 1A, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A and 5A to the original six; the collection day finder tells you yours. Our bin collection days page sets out which bins go out on every schedule in the weeks of 21 December, 28 December and 4 January.

Put everything out by 6am on the revised day, not the normal one. If a collection is missed after a revised date, report it through the council’s bin issues page.

Garden waste stops from 29 December

For 2026 the council’s calendar says there will be no garden waste collections from 29 December, because the collection vehicles will be supporting the additional seasonal waste and recycling, and that collections resume from 11 January 2027 (Bracknell Forest Council, schedule 1 calendar 2026/27, PDF). Brown bins due in the week of 21 December still go out.

Last year the brown bin service paused the same way. The council’s calendar said there would be no garden waste collections from 22 December, because the collection vehicles would be supporting the additional seasonal waste and recycling, and that collections would resume from 7 January (Bracknell Forest Council, schedule 1 calendar 2025/26, PDF). Subscribers were not offered a replacement collection.

The garden waste service itself is described on the council’s garden waste collection page.

Real Christmas trees

Bracknell Forest has a dedicated Christmas waste and recycling page, but when we checked on 25 September 2026 it returned “access denied”, which is what the council’s site shows for a page that has been taken down for updating (Bracknell Forest Council, Christmas waste and recycling). It normally carries the tree arrangements and the wrapping paper rules. It still returned “access denied” on 15 October 2026. The 2026/27 calendar does set the tree rule, though: a real tree is collected as garden waste only if it is cut up and put in your brown bin or a council garden waste sack, with the lid or sack closed and all lights and decorations removed. Trees left beside the bin, or in sacks that have not been booked, are not collected. The alternatives are a booked bulky collection or a trip to Longshot Lane. With garden waste paused from 29 December, the first chance to put a tree in the brown bin after Christmas is your first brown bin week from 11 January.

What is still to be confirmed

• The Christmas waste and recycling page. Offline on 15 October 2026; it normally carries the wrapping paper rules.
• Severe weather changes. The calendar says snow or ice can move collection days, with updates on the council’s website.

More Bracknell information

• Bracknell bin collection days: every schedule week by week to 10 January 2027, garden waste charges and missed collections
• Bracknell tip opening times: Longshot Lane hours, booking and the festive closures
• Bracknell Christmas trains and travel: what runs between Christmas Eve and 4 January
• Parking in Bracknell