Putting your bin out for collection

You need to put your bin out for collection at the kerb side, or at your collection point, before 6am on your collection day. You can put it out ready from 12pm the day before your collection is due. Please don't obstruct the pavement or road by putting it out too early.

You should leave your bin with the handles facing the road, ideally close to your neighbour's bin. After your bin has been collected, you need to remove it from the kerb side or your collection point by 12pm the day after it was emptied.

Your bin lid must be fully closed and any bin liners should be taken off the lip of the bin. Overflowing bins and those with liners on the lip can lead to waste falling out or getting stuck when they're emptied. You also shouldn't overfill your bin; the lifting mechanism on our wagons has a maximum weight limit of 50kg.

Partially emptied bins

Sometimes bins don't fully empty because compacted material gets stuck in the bottom. In extremely cold weather the material in your bin may also freeze and not fully empty. If this happens, please loosen the rubbish so we can fully empty your bin on your next scheduled collection day.

Our crews aren't allowed to loosen any material stuck in the bin for you. They're also not able to shake the bin or load it onto the lift on the bin lorry several times to try and empty it, as this may damage it.

Bin tags

If your bin can't be emptied safely, our crew will put a tag on it and not collect it. This means there's an issue with your bin that needs to be addressed before it can be safely collected. Find out how we work to keep our bin collection crews safe.

The most common reasons your bin may be tagged are:

bin is damaged – bins that are cracked, have missing wheels or a broken lid are unsafe for our crews to move and empty, even if they've been taped together or have previously been collected. If your bin is damaged you need to order a new bin.
bin has been overfilled - bins that are overflowing or have too much waste in them can be difficult and unsafe for our crews to handle. Make sure your bin lid is closed completely in order for our crews to collect it. This may mean removing some items from your bin.
bin is too heavy - bins that are too heavy pose a risk to the safety of our crews and may not be collected. Please remove some items to enable our crews to safely collect your bin.
incorrect waste in bin - putting the wrong type of waste in a bin can lead to issues with recycling being rejected. The processors won't accept recycling material from us if it contains general rubbish or materials they don't recycle. We call this contamination. You'll need to remove any items that are wrongly placed in your bin to allow us to collect it next time. Find out what you can put in your bins.

More information

Leaving bins out permanently

In exceptional cases we might give permission to leave a bin permanently at the front of a property, rather than having to take it back in by 12pm the day after it was emptied. This could be because:

the bin is part of an assisted collection and there's a risk if it's collected from the rear of a property
we've agreed a permanent collection point or site

If either of these apply to you, we'll tell you by sending you a letter.

Missed bins

If we don't complete a scheduled bin collection, check for service problems we know about and find out how to report a missed bin.