Bracknell Christmas Bin Collections 2026: Dates Due October

Bracknell Forest Council has not yet published its Christmas and New Year collection dates for 2026/27. The schedules on its website still run from November 2025 to October 2026, and the council puts the new year’s calendar hanger on green bins each October (Bracknell Forest Council, bin collection schedules). Last year’s calendar files were uploaded in October and November, so the 2026 dates should appear within the next six weeks. Until then, this page has the shape of last year’s arrangement, which the council has followed for years, and the parts of this Christmas that are already settled.

The quick answer

Nothing is confirmed for Christmas 2026 yet. Last year, collections ran as normal up to and including Christmas Eve, then every round from Christmas Day onwards moved one to two days later, with Friday rounds done on the Saturday, and the catch-up did not finish until Saturday 17 January. Garden waste stopped from 22 December and restarted on 7 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. Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, which is the worst shape for a Bracknell collection week.

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

The most recent festive arrangement Bracknell Forest has published is for Christmas 2025. These are not this year’s dates. They show how the council handles the two bank-holiday weeks, and in 2025 the answer was to push every round back rather than skip any.

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. On last year’s logic that means the Friday rounds on 25 December and 1 January move, and every round in the week of 28 December moves too. Expect a similar three-week catch-up, but 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 2026/27 schedule pages will show the Christmas weeks once published; until then the collection day finder gives your next dates. Our bin collection days page sets out all six schedules to 1 November.

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 for two weeks

Last year the brown bin service paused entirely. 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.

For 2026 the equivalent pause would start in the week of 21 December, but the council has not said so. 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. We will add the 2026 detail when it is live. In the meantime a real tree can always go to Longshot Lane as garden waste, with a booked slot.

What is still to be confirmed, and when

• The 2026/27 revised collection table. Expected on the council’s schedule pages and the green-bin hangers in October or November, going by last year’s upload dates.
• The garden waste pause dates. Published on the same calendar.
• Christmas tree collection and the Christmas waste page. Currently offline; expected by December.

This page will be updated when each of those appears.

More Bracknell information

• Bracknell bin collection days: all six schedules to 1 November, 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