Bath Christmas Bin Collections: Last Year's Moved Days

Bath and North East Somerset Council has not yet published its Christmas 2026 bin dates. It will. Last year the revised calendar and the household leaflet came out at the end of November, and the council’s current round calendars run only “November 2025 to November 2026”, so the next set is due around the same time. Until then, last winter’s arrangements are the best guide, and they show exactly how far the changes reach: well into January, and onto three Saturdays.

The quick answer

• The 2026 revised dates are not out yet. Last year the council announced them on 28 November.
• Last winter every weekday round moved for three or four weeks, from Christmas Day until the week of 12 January, with collections on Saturday 3, 10 and 17 January.
• Garden waste stopped for six weeks, from 7 December to 19 January, and the recycling centres shut on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

What happened last Christmas, round by round

The council’s 28 November 2025 announcement said changes would “affect collections which are normally scheduled from 25 December to 10 January”, and sent people to the collection day finder for the detail. The detail itself sits in the printable round calendars (Monday A to Friday B) that the finder links to, each of which carries a box headed “Revised Christmas recycling collection dates”. Read together, they show this:

Every round was back on its usual day in the week of 19 January 2026.

That table is the weekly recycling and food waste. The fortnightly rubbish collection moved to exactly the same revised day in whichever week it fell. On the Friday B calendar, for example, rubbish due on Friday 2 January went out on Tuesday 6 January, and rubbish due on Friday 16 January went out on Saturday 17 January.

Note the gap between the announcement and the calendars. The press release put the end of the changes at 10 January; the calendars kept moving collections for another week, to Saturday 17 January. If the two disagree again this year, go by the calendar for your round.

The shape of 2026 is different

The calendar is kinder to some rounds this year and harder on others, which is why last year’s table cannot simply be moved on by a year. According to the council’s own list of public holidays for 2026 to 2027, Christmas Day is Friday 25 December, the Boxing Day holiday is the substitute Monday 28 December, and New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027.

So in 2026 it is the Friday rounds that lose a day twice, and the Monday round loses the bank holiday on 28 December. Wednesday and Thursday households, who lost Christmas Day and New Year’s Day last year, have no bank holiday on their own day this time. How the council reshuffles around that will only be known when the calendar is published.

Garden waste, trees and wrapping paper

Last winter’s rules, all from the council’s own pages:

• Garden waste was paused from 7 December and restarted on 19 January. On the round calendars, the A rounds had a last collection in the first week of December (Monday A on 1 December through to Friday A on 5 December) and restarted in the week of 26 January; the B rounds had no December collection and restarted in the week of 19 January.
• Christmas trees. The council’s Christmas tree page, still showing last year’s dates, offers two routes. Dorothy House collected in BA1, BA2, BA3, BA15, BS31, BS39 and BS40 for a donation, from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 January 2026, with registration opening on 15 November 2025. The council itself collected trees free between 19 January and 20 February 2026 as part of the garden waste service, with booking from Monday 5 January and at least two days before your collection day. Either way, strip the decorations, cut the tree into pieces no longer than 1.2m and leave it at the front edge of your property. The council does not return for missed trees but lets you rebook within the collection period.
• Wrapping paper. Only plain brown wrapping paper goes in the blue cardboard bag. The council says paper marked recyclable often contains glitter or another non-paper additive and cannot be recycled.
• The Keynsham Reuse Shop closed from 21 December to 3 January.

The tips over Christmas

All three recycling centres, at Midland Road in Bath, Worlds End Lane in Keynsham and Old Welton in Midsomer Norton, closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day last year. Their usual days off still apply around them: Bath shuts on Tuesdays and Midsomer Norton on Thursdays, and both need a booking; Keynsham opens seven days and needs none. The full opening hours are on our Bath bin collection days page.

In 2026 the three closure days fall on Friday 25 December, Saturday 26 December and Friday 1 January. The council has not yet said whether the sites also close on the substitute bank holiday, Monday 28 December; normal bank holiday hours are 8am to 3.45pm.

Finding your own round

Enter your address in the council’s collection day finder. It shows your day and whether you are on week A or week B, and links to the printable calendar for your round. The Christmas box on that calendar is the one to screenshot.

Crews expect about 30% more waste than usual over Christmas, according to the council, whose request is to “wash, squash and sort” recycling into the green boxes so the lorries can keep moving.

Still to be confirmed

• The 2026 to 2027 revised dates for every round, expected in late November when the new round calendars and the household leaflet come out. This page will be updated the day they are published.
• The 2026 garden waste pause and restart dates.
• The Dorothy House and council Christmas tree collection dates for January 2027.
• Whether the recycling centres open on Monday 28 December.

For getting around the city in December, see parking in Bath and the Bath roadworks page.