Find Your Tewkesbury Collection, Then Use the Right Bin Before the Crew Arrives
Most Tewkesbury homes alternate a fortnightly green refuse bin with fortnightly blue recycling, while food waste is collected every week. Garden waste is a separate paid fortnightly service.
Your exact property remains the starting point. This guide then covers presentation time, recycling details, small electricals, missed bins, narrow-access homes, extra capacity, garden waste, bulky items and current recycling-centre disruption.
Tewkesbury Borough Council’s live waste page currently says crews are starting earlier because of hot weather and asks residents to present waste and recycling by 6am this week.
The standing rule is normally 7am. Treat 6am as a temporary operational override and remove/update this alert when the council’s live notice changes.
Tewkesbury Bin Collection 2026: Start With These Four Checks
Standard collection pattern: green household refuse every two weeks, blue mixed recycling every two weeks and food waste every week.
Garden waste is separate, paid and normally fortnightly for active Garden Waste Club members.
How to Check Your Tewkesbury Bin Collection Day
There is no reliable borough-wide table that can tell every resident whether their next collection is green or blue.
-
Open Tewkesbury’s live waste page.
The postcode calendar appears on the main waste-and-recycling service. - Enter the property’s postcode.
-
Select the exact address.
Do not copy a neighbour or nearby road. -
Read the service due as well as the weekday.
“Tuesday” is incomplete; “Tuesday — blue recycling + food” is useful. -
Check the live page for alerts.
Extreme heat, ice or another service issue can temporarily change presentation advice. -
Check Bank Holiday amendments.
Tewkesbury publishes explicit revised dates rather than expecting residents to guess.
Check my collection date
How Tewkesbury’s Weekly and Fortnightly Services Fit Together
Refuse week
- Green household refuse bin
- Outdoor food-waste caddy
Recycling week
- Blue mixed-recycling bin
- Outdoor food-waste caddy
Food waste remains weekly whichever main wheelie-bin stream is due.
A brown Garden Waste Club bin has a separate fortnightly calendar and can fall alongside either main household service.
The pattern explains frequency only. Do not calculate your real date by repeatedly adding 14 days to an old screenshot.
Tewkesbury Bin Set-Out Time: Normally 7am
Standing rule: have containers at the correct collection point by 7am.
Temporary operational notices can require an earlier presentation time. The live heat alert checked on 20 August 2026 currently says 6am for this week.
Normal presentation point
- Edge of the property nearest the highway.
- Another position only where the council has agreed it.
- Clearly visible.
- Safe for the crew to reach.
- Not creating a pedestrian obstruction.
Before leaving it out
- Correct collection checked.
- Wheelie-bin lid closed.
- Wrong items removed.
- Container not excessively heavy.
- Food caddy visible to its crew.
- Vehicle access not obstructed where you can control it.
Tewkesbury Green Bin: 140L Replacement-Bin Change
The green wheelie bin is for non-recyclable household waste and is normally collected every two weeks.
New builds and replacement requests now receive a 140-litre green refuse bin.
Tewkesbury moved away from supplying new 180L refuse bins during 2025. It did not recall every serviceable existing bin, so an older household may still have a larger legacy container.
Why did the bin get smaller?
Council waste analysis found that substantial amounts of food, plastic, paper and card were still being placed in residual rubbish even though those materials already have recycling routes.
Keep these out
- Batteries
- Vapes
- Stones, gravel and rubble
- Soil
- Garden waste
- Sharp objects
- DIY renovation waste
- Carpet and underlay
- Commercial/building waste
- Part-full or full paint tins
- Household chemicals
- Clinical sharps
Nappies and ordinary hygiene waste
Disposable nappies, adult continence products, sanitary waste and normal first-aid waste should be securely double-bagged before going into the green refuse bin.
Sharps are different
Needles, syringes and lancets must never go into the green bin. Use an appropriate yellow sharps container and the local GP/pharmacy return route.
Side waste
Tewkesbury’s normal policy does not collect ordinary refuse sacks left on top of or beside the green bin.
Check green-bin rules
Tewkesbury Blue Bin: Detailed 2026 Recycling Guide
The 240L blue recycling bin is normally emptied every two weeks.
Paper and cardboard
- Clean card and cardboard
- Greeting cards and postcards
- Food-packaging boxes
- Egg boxes
- Small amounts of corrugated cardboard
- Books with hardback covers removed
- Normal envelopes, but not padded/Jiffy bags
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Junk mail
- Office paper
- Small amounts of loose shredded paper
- Paper wrapping without glitter, decoration or plastic lamination
Cartons
- Tetra Pak-style food/drink cartons
- Paper yoghurt pots
- Paper ice-cream pots
Metal packaging
- Food and drink cans
- Pet-food cans
- Empty aerosols
- Biscuit and sweet tins
- Clean aluminium foil
- Clean foil pots and trays
Glass
- Clean glass bottles of any colour
- Clean glass jars
- Metal lids
Rigid plastic packaging
- Drinks and milk bottles
- Detergent bottles
- Soap/shampoo/shower-gel bottles
- Cleaning-product bottles
- Yoghurt and soup pots
- Margarine and ice-cream tubs
- Food trays and punnets
- Chocolate/biscuit tubs and trays
- Clear or black plastic packaging
Small details that prevent sorting mistakes
- Wash and squash plastics where practical.
- Plastic lids can stay on suitable bottles.
- Trigger sprays can stay attached.
- Rinse food tins/cans.
- Dirty takeaway cardboard does not belong in the blue bin.
Do not put these in the blue bin
- Batteries
- Vapes
- Crisp packets
- Prepared-salad bags
- Film lids
- Plastic film, wrappers and carrier bags
- Pet-food pouches
- Black polystyrene trays
- Other polystyrene packaging
- Medicine blister packs
- Plastic toys
- Bubble wrap
- Paint pots
- Chemical/antifreeze containers
Need more recycling space?
Additional blue recycling bins can currently be ordered free of charge.
Check blue-bin recycling
Tewkesbury Food Waste: Weekly Collection and Liner Rules
Food waste is collected every week.
Most standard properties use a small indoor kitchen caddy and a larger lockable outdoor food caddy.
Accepted food waste
- Plate scrapings
- Uneaten food
- Mouldy/out-of-date food
- Eggs and eggshells
- Meat and fish
- Bones
- Fruit stones
- Tea bags
- Coffee grounds
- Cat and dog food
- Used kitchen roll and paper tissues
- Small amounts of liquid, oil and fat
- Solid fats such as lard
What can line the kitchen caddy?
Tewkesbury allows more liner choices than many residents expect:
- Compostable caddy liner
- Paper/newspaper
- Old carrier bag
- Bread bag
- Sandwich bag
This does not mean those plastic bags are accepted as blue-bin recycling. Their permitted use here is specifically as a food-caddy liner.
Keep these out
- Food packaging
- Foil trays
- Metal
- Glass
- General rubbish
- Animal faeces
- Animal bedding
- Pet litter
- Animal carcasses
- Cardboard
- Nappies
Cleaning the caddy
Tewkesbury says its food-waste caddies are dishwasher proof.
Need another food caddy?
Additional food caddies are currently free to order.
Small Electricals: A Kerbside Service Many Tewkesbury Guides Miss
Most standard households can recycle small electrical and electronic items alongside their recycling collection.
Examples
- Small appliances
- Electrical children’s toys
- Mobile phones
- Digital cameras
- Games consoles
- Tablets
- E-readers
- Fairy lights
- Electrical cables
- Chargers
How to present them
Put suitable small electricals in an old carrier bag, leave the top untied and place it next to the blue recycling bin.
Too large for the kerbside service
- Televisions
- Computer monitors
- Light bulbs
- Fluorescent tubes
- Anything too large to fit safely in a carrier bag
Properties excluded from this route
Small electrical kerbside collection is not currently available to narrow-access properties, certain smaller-vehicle rounds or communal bin sheds.
Tewkesbury Missed Bin: 48 Hours to Report, Up to 5 Working Days for a Return
Report a genuine missed collection within 48 hours of the scheduled collection day.
Where the contractor genuinely missed the container because of service failure, the official service policy requires a return within up to five working days.
First make sure the correct crew has passed
Separate vehicles can collect refuse, recycling, food and garden waste. Your blue bin may therefore be emptied at a different time from the food caddy.
Check before reporting
- Correct date.
- Correct container.
- Presented by the required time.
- No contamination.
- Not excessively heavy.
- Lid closed.
- Access available.
- No known weather/access disruption.
After a qualifying report
Leave the missed container available at the property edge during the return window.
The normal missed-bin return rule does not override the separate narrow-access exception described below.
Report a missed collection
What Tewkesbury’s Official Waste Policy Adds Beyond the Basic Web Pages
The council’s household collection policy is useful because it explains the operational rules behind the shorter resident pages.
Missed collection
- Report within 48 hours.
- Genuine contractor error has an up-to-five-working-day return window.
- Leave the reported container accessible during that window.
Different vehicles matter
Refuse, recycling, food and garden material are not necessarily collected by the same vehicle or at the same time.
Bad-weather service failure
During ice or snow, leave scheduled refuse/recycling out where safe because crews may attempt a later-week return.
The council says it cannot return for food-waste or garden-waste collections missed because of severe weather. Present those containers again on their next scheduled collection.
Open household waste policy PDF
Narrow-Access Tewkesbury Homes: Do Not Follow Standard Wheelie-Bin Advice
Certain properties that standard collection vehicles cannot safely reach have been individually placed on a bespoke narrow-access round.
| Waste stream | Narrow-access container |
|---|---|
| Recycling | Four reusable blue sacks |
| General waste | One reusable pest-resistant black outer sack |
| Food waste | Kitchen caddy + larger outdoor caddy |
How to use the black refuse sack
Put ordinary refuse into normal bin bags first, then place those sealed bags inside the reusable black outer sack.
Do not put loose refuse directly inside the reusable black sack. The smaller vehicle does not have a normal tail-lift and crews manually remove the inner bags.
How to use blue recycling sacks
Place accepted recycling loose directly into the reusable blue sacks. Do not bag the recycling first.
Food waste
Food remains weekly, just as it is for the standard collection service.
Missed narrow-access collection
Tewkesbury says it cannot make a return journey for an isolated missed narrow-access collection.
Make sure all containers are clearly visible before 7am, or before an earlier temporary time if a borough-wide live instruction applies.
Small electricals
The normal carrier-bag kerbside electrical collection is not available on the narrow-access vehicle because of limited space.
Garden waste
A limited number of existing narrow-access households receive garden collection. The council says rollout is currently restricted rather than automatically available to every narrow-access property.
Open narrow-access guidance
Extra Tewkesbury Refuse Capacity: Large Household vs Medical Need
Five or more permanent residents
A household of five or more can be considered for one additional 140L refuse bin if it is already making full use of recycling and weekly food-waste services.
The current refuse page lists a £42.50 charge for a chargeable extra refuse bin including delivery.
Medical waste that will not fit
The current council website contains contradictory price wording.
Tewkesbury’s “Small on waste, big on recycling” section and the upper section of the refuse page say a household with a recognised medical circumstance that creates unavoidable additional general waste can receive an extra 140L refuse bin free of charge.
Lower on the same refuse page, the council also states that “extra bins cost £42.50 and there are no dispensations”.
If the application is medical, call Waste Services before paying and ask the council to confirm which live rule applies to the approved case.
Nappy waste
Tewkesbury does not currently issue an additional refuse bin solely because a household uses disposable nappies.
Normal nappies should be double-bagged in residual waste. The council also points residents to Gloucestershire’s reusable-nappy support scheme.
Use free recycling capacity first
Additional blue recycling bins and food caddies remain free.
Call 01684 295010
Tewkesbury Garden Waste Club 2026/27: Address Marking Replaced the Old Sticker
Membership runs from 1 April to 31 March and collections are normally fortnightly.
Tewkesbury uses a 240L brown wheelie bin for this paid opt-in service.
No branded sticker anymore
Tewkesbury no longer supplies its old branded garden-waste sticker.
Clearly mark the first line of your address on the brown bin with a marker pen, sticker or paint. Crews need to link the container to an active property subscription.
This is especially important at shared collection points where several brown bins are standing together.
Presentation time
Garden bins must normally be out by 7am on the allocated collection day.
Membership does not guarantee an exact number of collections
The terms explicitly note that the service pauses for two weeks over Christmas and New Year and can also be affected by operational conditions.
Cooling-off period
New membership has a 14-day cooling-off period. Refunds outside that period are at the council’s discretion.
More than one brown bin
Multiple Garden Waste Club memberships can be purchased for one address if more than one subscribed bin is required.
Accepted garden waste
- Grass cuttings
- Hedge and shrub clippings
- Leaves
- Twigs
- Bark
- Plants
- Flowers
- Weeds
- Small branches
- Windfall fruit
Do not put in the brown bin
- Food/kitchen waste
- Animal faeces
- Animal bedding
- Plastic or earthenware plant pots
- Plastic bags or sacks
- Large amounts of soil
- General household rubbish
No bagged garden waste
Put compostable garden material loose in the brown bin. The automated composting process cannot remove sacks from the load.
What happens to it?
Tewkesbury’s garden waste is processed by open-windrow composting at the facility next to Wingmoor Farm HRC.
Current subscription price
The current public garden page links directly to the live sign-up/payment service but does not expose a stable indexed 2026/27 price. For accuracy, check the transaction amount before payment rather than relying on an older search result.
Check Garden Waste Club
Tewkesbury Bulky Waste 2026: Exact Current Price
£27.50 for the first item.
Each additional item costs £13.75, with up to six items in one standard booking.
| Number of booked items | Current charge |
|---|---|
| 1 | £27.50 |
| 2 | £41.25 |
| 3 | £55.00 |
| 4 | £68.75 |
| 5 | £82.50 |
| 6 | £96.25 |
Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support
Residents receiving Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support are asked to contact Customer Services when making the booking.
Common accepted examples
- Cookers
- Fridges and freezers
- Tumble dryers
- Washing machines
- Televisions
- Hi-Fi equipment
- Furniture
- Garden furniture
- Mattresses and beds
- Tables and chairs
- Carpet/lino rolls within the service’s size limit
Common exclusions
- Commercial waste
- Bathroom suites
- Building materials
- Car parts and batteries
- External doors
- Windows
- Fluorescent tubes
- Garage doors
- Garden refuse
- Kitchen units and sink tops
- Radiators/storage heaters
- Sheds and greenhouses
- Scrap timber or metal
Collection-day rules
- Items ready by 7am.
- At front of property.
- Visible from road.
- Safely accessible.
- Do not obstruct the public highway.
- Only booked items are removed.
- Crew will not enter the home.
- Crew cannot accept payment at collection.
Fridge/freezer situation — August 2026
A national reprocessing backlog is affecting fridges and freezers.
Tewkesbury’s bulky-waste contractor is currently still accepting these appliances and storing them until onward recycling capacity becomes available.
Cancellation
Refunds require cancellation at least 48 working hours before the booked collection date.
Book bulky collection
Tewkesbury Assisted Collection: Help Moving Bins and Caddies
Assisted collection is available for residents who cannot present containers because of ill health, infirmity or disability.
The service is aimed at households where no other adult over 16 in the home, and no suitable neighbour, can provide the required help.
What happens
- An application is completed.
- The case is assessed on its merits.
- The contractor risk-assesses access.
- An agreed collection point is established.
- The crew collects and returns bins/sacks/caddies to that point.
Access remains important
The agreed location must remain safely accessible on collection day.
Check assisted collection
Household Recycling Centres Near Tewkesbury: Current August 2026 Changes
Every visit to a Gloucestershire Household Recycling Centre must currently be pre-booked.
Car vs van/pick-up/large trailer
Gloucestershire uses separate booking routes. Do not make a car booking if you are arriving in a van, pick-up or qualifying large trailer.
Wingmoor Farm
Wingmoor Farm is a commonly used HRC for households in the Tewkesbury/Cheltenham side of the borough and is currently operating seven days a week during the Hempsted disruption.
Hempsted closure
Hempsted HRC closed on 13 August 2026 for improvement works.
Gloucestershire County Council currently expects the site to reopen around mid-November 2026.
Fridges and freezers — separate temporary restriction
Gloucestershire HRCs temporarily stopped accepting fridges and freezers from 8 August 2026 because of a national processing-capacity problem.
Do not load a fridge into your vehicle for an HRC visit until the county confirms the restriction has ended.
Tewkesbury’s own booked bulky service is currently still accepting fridges/freezers, which may make it the practical alternative while the HRC restriction remains.
DIY waste proposal is not yet a confirmed new charging rule
Gloucestershire consulted in July 2026 on charges for DIY quantities above a proposed free allowance. The county explicitly said no final decision had yet been made at that stage. Do not publish the proposed charge as an active rule unless a later council decision confirms it.
Before travelling
- Check the exact site is open.
- Book the correct slot.
- Use the correct vehicle booking type.
- Check that the material is currently accepted.
- Do not take trade/commercial waste through a household booking.
Check and book Gloucestershire HRC
Tewkesbury Bank Holiday Bin Dates 2026: Do Not Guess
Tewkesbury has already published its 2026–27 amended collection timetable.
August Bank Holiday 2026
| Normal date | Revised collection |
|---|---|
| Monday 31 August | Tuesday 1 September |
| Tuesday 1 September | Wednesday 2 September |
| Wednesday 2 September | Thursday 3 September |
| Thursday 3 September | Friday 4 September |
| Friday 4 September | Saturday 5 September |
Christmas and New Year 2026/27
Several Christmas collections move earlier, not later.
| Normal collection | Revised collection |
|---|---|
| Monday 21 December | Saturday 19 December |
| Tuesday 22 December | Monday 21 December |
| Wednesday 23 December | Tuesday 22 December |
| Thursday 24 December | Wednesday 23 December |
| Friday 25 December | Thursday 24 December |
| Monday 28 December | Monday 28 December |
| Tuesday 29 December | Tuesday 29 December |
| Wednesday 30 December | Wednesday 30 December |
| Thursday 31 December | Thursday 31 December |
| Friday 1 January 2027 | Saturday 2 January 2027 |
Garden waste Christmas pause
The council says the Garden Waste Club has a two-week festive pause. Its 2026 announcement says the last collection is 24 December and service resumes from 11 January 2027.
Snow and ice
During severe weather, put containers out by the published time if it is safe to do so. Crews will attempt scheduled rounds and can try to return for refuse/recycling later in the week.
No weather catch-up return is provided for missed food or garden collections; use the next normal date.
Check 2026–27 collection changes
Private Waste Collection: Check the Carrier Before Handing Anything Over
If someone removes rubble, furniture or household-clearance waste for payment, check that the collector is authorised to carry waste.
Keep a simple record
- Waste-carrier registration
- Business/contact details
- Vehicle registration where practical
- What waste was removed
- Where it was going
- Receipt or transfer record
Household duty-of-care rules still matter after you pay someone else to remove waste.
Tewkesbury Waste and Recycling Contact Details
| Route | Current detail | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Services | 01684 295010 | Waste queries, assisted collection, larger-bin assessment and cases that cannot be resolved online. |
| Recycling team email | recycling@tewkesbury.gov.uk | Waste/recycling questions and item-specific guidance. |
| Public Services Centre | Gloucester Road, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire GL20 5TT | Council services where in-person support/payment is specifically needed. |
| Opening hours | Mon–Thu 8:30am–5pm; Fri 8:30am–4pm | General Customer Services availability. |
Before calling about a collection
- Full address
- Postcode
- Scheduled date
- Waste stream/container
- Time it was presented
- Whether the relevant vehicle has already passed
- Any access or contamination issue
- Any existing report/reference number
Use 01684 295010 as the main current council customer-service/waste contact. It is the number shown across the council’s current contact, refuse, recycling, bulky and assisted-collection pages.
30-Second Tewkesbury Bin-Night Checklist
- Exact address/calendar checked.
- Temporary council alert checked.
- Green or blue fortnight confirmed.
- Weekly food caddy ready.
- Garden subscription/date checked if applicable.
- Blue-bin contamination removed.
- Batteries and vapes removed.
- Small electrical bag presented only if the property is eligible.
- Green-bin lid fully closed.
- No normal refuse side waste.
- Collection point visible and accessible.
- Ready by 7am normally, or earlier when a live temporary notice says so.
Tewkesbury Bin Collection FAQs
How do I check my Tewkesbury bin collection day?
Use Tewkesbury Borough Council’s live postcode collection calendar. Enter the postcode, select the exact address and check which refuse, recycling, food or garden service is due.
What time should Tewkesbury bins be put out?
The normal standing deadline is 7am. Temporary notices can require an earlier time; on 20 August 2026 the council’s live page was asking residents to present waste and recycling by 6am that week because of hot weather.
How often are green and blue bins collected in Tewkesbury?
Green residual waste and blue mixed recycling are normally collected every two weeks on alternating cycles. Food waste is collected every week.
Why did my replacement green bin get smaller?
New developments and replacement refuse-bin requests now receive a 140L green bin rather than the previous 180L replacement size. Existing serviceable larger bins were not subject to a universal recall.
Can black plastic packaging go in the Tewkesbury blue bin?
Yes. Tewkesbury currently accepts suitable clear and black plastic packaging such as pots, tubs and trays. Plastic film, crisp packets, pouches, polystyrene, batteries and vapes are excluded.
Can I use an ordinary plastic bag to line my food caddy?
Yes. Tewkesbury currently allows compostable liners, paper, old carrier bags, bread bags or sandwich bags as kitchen-caddy liners. The plastic bag itself is not blue-bin recycling.
How long do I have to report a missed Tewkesbury bin?
A genuine missed collection should be reported within 48 hours of the collection day. Where the contractor caused the miss through service failure, the policy gives an up-to-five-working-day return window.
Can Tewkesbury return for a missed narrow-access collection?
Not for an isolated narrow-access miss. The council says geographical constraints prevent a return journey, so the reusable sacks and food caddy need to be clearly visible before the required presentation time.
How much is Tewkesbury bulky waste collection?
The current charge is £27.50 for the first item and £13.75 for each additional item, with up to six items in a standard booking.
Do I need to book a Gloucestershire recycling centre?
Yes. Every Gloucestershire HRC visit currently requires advance booking. Hempsted is temporarily closed from 13 August 2026 until around mid-November, and county HRCs also temporarily stopped accepting fridges and freezers from 8 August 2026 because of a national processing backlog.
Official Tewkesbury and Gloucestershire Sources Used for This Guide
These are the primary action and verification pages behind the resident guidance above.
- Tewkesbury waste and recycling hub / postcode calendar
- Tewkesbury refuse and extra-capacity rules
- Blue-bin, food-waste and small-electrical rules
- Narrow-access round
- Garden Waste Club
- Bulky household collection
- 2026–27 Bank Holiday and bad-weather schedule
- Gloucestershire HRC bookings and current restrictions
Independent information guide — not Tewkesbury Borough Council or a waste collection authority.