Guildford Bin Collection Days: Black or Green This Week?

Your Guildford bin collection runs on a two week cycle: rubbish one week, recycling the next, with the food caddy emptied every week in between. That single fact catches out most people who have just moved into the borough, because it means the bin you put out last Tuesday is not the bin you put out this Tuesday. This guide covers how to check your own collection day, what belongs in each bin, what changed in March 2026, what the garden waste bin costs, and why crews sometimes drive past a bin without emptying it.

How to check your collection day

Guildford Borough Council runs a free address lookup. Enter your address and it returns your rubbish, recycling, food waste and garden waste dates.

• Start at the council’s find your bin day page, which links through to the lookup tool at my.guildford.gov.uk.
• The council also publishes a printable service guide and calendar each year, which sets out the whole year’s pattern in one PDF.

Whichever you use, one rule governs everything else: containers must be at your collection point by 6.30am. The council is blunt about it, saying it “will not empty your bin if you do not leave them at your collection point by 6.30am on your collection day” (report a missed collection).

The Guildford Borough Council bin collection calendar 2026, week by week

The bit that makes Guildford easy: the alternating pattern is borough-wide, not per-street. Your collection day depends on your address, but whether a given week is a recycling week or a rubbish week is the same for everyone in the borough. So once you know your day, this table gives you the rest of the year.

The council publishes the calendar itself as a separate one-page download, 2026 bin calendar (PDF), linked from its bin collection days page. That single sheet is the whole year on one grid, green for a recycling week and grey for a rubbish week, with no address lookup needed. It is the file to print and put on the fridge; the table below is the same information typed out so you can read it on a phone. Checked 14 September 2026.

It is read straight off the council’s own colour-coded calendar in the 2026 service guide, where green is a recycling week and grey a rubbish week. The outside food waste bin goes out every week either way, and the only difference on a rubbish week is that no side waste is taken.

Every bank holiday in 2026 is a normal collection day

The council’s calendar answers the question its website does not. Each 2026 bank holiday appears in the grid as an ordinary working collection day, in the same colour as the rest of its week, with nothing moved:

• Good Friday, 3 April, and Easter Monday, 6 April
• The early May bank holiday, Monday 4 May
• The spring bank holiday, Monday 25 May
• The summer bank holiday, Monday 31 August, which opens a recycling week

So for the August bank holiday your day does not move, and neither does the week. Put the recycling bin and the food caddy out as usual.

Christmas is the exception and the one to re-check. The grid shows 25 December and the week of 28 December as normal, but the council issues a separate revised festive schedule instead: last time round every collection from Christmas Day onwards slid later and took three weeks to unwind, and garden waste stopped for a fortnight. Expect the same shape and wait for the published dates rather than reading them off the grid.

Which bin, and how often

Source: Guildford Borough Council waste collection service guidelines and the 2026 service guide. Flats with limited bin storage can be on weekly rubbish and recycling instead.

The standard issue is a 240 litre black bin and a 240 litre green bin. You can ask for a 140 litre bin, and households of two people or fewer are issued the smaller refuse bin as standard, but there is a fixed rule: your green recycling bin must always be the same size as or larger than your black refuse bin (order a smaller, larger or additional bin). No two wheeled bin may weigh more than 50kg.

What goes in the green bin

Guildford takes glass at the kerbside, which is worth saying plainly because plenty of neighbouring authorities do not. The green bin takes paper, card, newspapers and magazines, glass bottles and jars, tins, cans and cartons, empty aerosols, clean foil and foil trays, plastic bottles, tubs, pots and trays, and plastic and metal lids and bottle tops (what goes in my bins).

What it will not take: black bags, polystyrene, cling film and bubble wrap, crisp packets and sweet wrappers, food waste, textiles, nappies, carrier bags, drinking glasses and crockery, paint tins, garden waste, and batteries or vapes.

Batteries are the one to be careful with, because they start fires in the back of collection lorries. They go in a small tied bag placed on top of your bin, never inside it, or into a supermarket collection point.

The food caddy

Food waste is collected every week, on both your rubbish week and your recycling week. It takes meat and fish including bones, shells, dairy, fruit and vegetable peelings, bread and cakes, rice and pasta, tea bags and coffee grounds, and anything that has gone off in the fridge. Line it with any bag except a black bin bag.

The silver kitchen caddy is not collected. Only the larger outdoor caddy is emptied, so the indoor one is just a carrier. New caddies have to be collected in person rather than delivered, from Millmead House in Guildford or from one of eight parish council offices including Ash, Normandy, Shalford, Shere, Tongham, West Horsley and Worplesdon (food caddy pickup points).

What changed in March 2026

The government’s Simpler Recycling rules took effect on 31 March 2026, requiring councils across England to collect food waste and a core list of recyclables separately. Guildford was already doing nearly all of it, so the change was smaller here than in much of the country: Surrey has run household food waste collections since 2013, and the county’s own partnership confirmed that the new duty meant “no new bins required” and that “current collection schedules remain unaffected” (Surrey Environment Partnership).

What did change is the list of things you can now put in the green bin. Since 31 March 2026 that includes juice and plant based milk cartons, empty aerosols, scrunched foil balls at least the size of a tennis ball, clean foil trays, clean plant pots in any colour except black, and empty squeezy tubes, both the metal kind such as tomato puree and the plastic kind such as toothpaste.

If you are wondering why any of this matters, the partnership’s own figures give the answer: roughly 6,000 tonnes of Surrey’s recycling was sent for disposal as ordinary rubbish in 2024/25 because it was too contaminated to process, and a further 250 tonnes was rejected before it even reached the sorting line.

Garden waste is a paid subscription

Your rubbish, recycling and food waste are paid for out of your council tax. Garden waste is not. It is a separate subscription costing £75 per bin for the 2026/27 year, which runs from 23 March 2026 to 21 March 2027 (pay for a garden waste collection).

• Collections are fortnightly, with a two week pause over Christmas and New Year.
• You need a MyGuildford account to subscribe or renew, and direct debit payers should not use the renewal form.
• There are no refunds if you cancel part way through the year.
• Properties that cannot store a bin get a maximum of four reusable garden waste sacks instead.
• Garden waste bins cannot be swapped for a different size.

The bin takes grass cuttings, prunings, hedge trimmings, leaves, twigs, dead plants and weeds, and branches up to 7.5cm thick. It will not take soil, turf, stones, flower pots, animal bedding, food waste, timber or anything from the house (garden waste service).

Why a bin gets left behind

If a bin is still full at the end of the day, look for a hanger or label on it first. That means it was not a missed collection, and the label says why. The council’s service guidelines list the reasons crews will not lift a bin:

• The lid is not fully closed.
• It is over 50kg, or too heavy for safe lifting in the conditions.
• It is contaminated with the wrong materials. The bin will not be emptied and the crew will not return, so you wait for the next scheduled collection, up to two weeks away.
• It is damaged, or it is not a Guildford Borough Council bin.
• It was not out by 6.30am.

Side waste rules differ by stream, which is a common source of confusion. Extra rubbish left beside the black bin is not collected, and nor is extra garden waste. Extra recycling is collected if it is presented properly, flattened card bundled and everything else in a see through bag, with the council asking for no more than one extra bag per household.

If none of that applies and your bin was genuinely missed, report it within two working days through the council’s missed collection page, and the council aims to return within two working days of your report.

Bank holidays, Christmas and heatwaves

Guildford does not publish a standing bank holiday page, and the council’s stated policy is simply that it will announce any changes on its website and in the annual calendar. In practice the annual calendar already answers it: as set out above, every 2026 bank holiday appears in it as a normal collection day, so nothing moves except at Christmas.

The Christmas table in the 2026 guide is not for this Christmas

This is the trap in the calendar, and it is worth being clear about. The festive table printed in the 2026 service guide is headed “Christmas collections 2025”, and it runs from 25 December 2025 to 17 January 2026. It is the schedule for the Christmas that has already been and gone, printed in the current guide for reference. It is not the schedule for Christmas 2026, and Guildford Borough Council has still not published that one: checked again on 14 September 2026, neither the bin collection days page nor the separate 2026 bin calendar PDF carries a festive schedule.

You can still read the shape of it off the old table, because the council does the same thing every year:

• Nothing moved before Christmas Day. Monday 22, Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 December were all marked “no change”.
• Everything from Christmas Day slid on by about one working day. Thursday 25 December went to Monday 29 December; Friday 26 December went to Tuesday 30 December; Monday 29 December went to Wednesday 31 December.
• It took three full weeks to unwind. The last shifted round was Friday 16 January, collected on Saturday 17 January. Saturday collections were used twice along the way, on 3 and 10 January.
• Garden waste stopped completely for two weeks, Monday 29 December to Friday 9 January.

Why this year will look different. Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday, Boxing Day on the Saturday, and the Boxing Day bank holiday is substituted to Monday 28 December. New Year’s Day 2027 is a Friday. That is a different arrangement from 2025, when Christmas Day was a Thursday, so the day-for-day mapping in the printed table will not transfer. Expect the same behaviour, a slide of roughly one working day from Christmas Day, about three weeks of catch-up and a two week garden waste pause, but treat the December weeks in the table above as provisional until the council issues the 2026 festive schedule.

Heat moves the start time, not the day

In early August 2026 the council ran a notice across its website asking residents to put bins out the night before, because crews were starting at 6.00am to beat the heat. That notice has since come down: checked on 14 September 2026, the bin collection days page carries no early-start warning, so the standing 6.30am deadline applies again. Expect the earlier start to return in the next hot spell rather than being announced far in advance.

Bigger bins, extra bins and help putting them out

• Five or more people in the house? You can apply for an additional 240 litre refuse bin, free on first issue, plus an extra recycling bin.
• Medical need generating extra waste? Assessed case by case, and extra capacity is free on first issue.
• Cannot move your bins? Assisted collections are available if you have a medical reason and there is no one at the property, including a visiting carer, able to do it for you. Once granted it applies automatically to every collection.
• Lost or broken bin? A replacement black refuse or garden waste bin is £37. Green recycling bins and food caddies are replaced free unless they were deliberately damaged (order a bin).

Bulky items and the tip

Anything too big for a bin has two routes. The council’s bulky waste collection starts at £49, with discounts for residents on means tested benefits, and it is actually run by Furniture Helpline rather than the council itself (bulky waste collection). It will not take rubble, asbestos, paint, sheet glass or garden waste.

Otherwise there is Guildford Community Recycling Centre at Moorfield Road, Slyfield, GU1 1RU, run by SUEZ for Surrey County Council. It opens Monday, Thursday and Friday 8am to 4pm and Saturday and Sunday 9am to 4pm, and is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. No booking is needed, but there is no pedestrian access and you will need proof that you live in Surrey (Guildford recycling centre). Vans, pickups and trailers need a £10 annual permit, and DIY waste above a small free allowance is charged.

What happens in April 2027

Guildford Borough Council will not exist in two years’ time. Under the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026 the county council and all eleven district and borough councils are abolished on 1 April 2027, and Guildford becomes part of a new unitary West Surrey Council alongside Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley and Woking. The official position on bins is that collections continue on the same day, with any service changes announced in advance (Surrey LGR hub). Nothing changes before then, and it is the same reorganisation that will decide who sets your council tax bill from 2027/28 onwards and who determines Guildford planning applications.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find my bin collection day in Guildford?

Enter your address in the council’s find your bin day tool. It returns your rubbish, recycling, food waste and garden waste dates. Put containers out by 6.30am.

Are Guildford bin collections weekly or fortnightly?

Rubbish and recycling are both fortnightly, collected on alternate weeks, so you have a bin out every week but not the same one. Food waste is collected weekly, every week, alongside whichever wheeled bin is due.

Can I put glass in my Guildford recycling bin?

Yes. Glass bottles and jars go loose in the green bin along with paper, card, cans, cartons, foil and plastic bottles, tubs and trays.

How much is garden waste collection in Guildford?

£75 per bin for the 2026/27 subscription year, which runs from 23 March 2026 to 21 March 2027. Collections are fortnightly with a two week break at Christmas, and there are no refunds if you cancel mid year.

Do Guildford bin collections change on bank holidays?

No, apart from Christmas. Every bank holiday in the council’s own 2026 calendar, Good Friday and Easter Monday, both May Mondays and the summer bank holiday on 31 August, is shown as an ordinary collection day in its normal week. Only the Christmas and New Year period gets a revised schedule, published separately each December.

Why was my bin not emptied?

Check for a label on the bin. Crews leave bins that are contaminated, overweight at more than 50kg, have lids that will not close, are damaged, or were not out by 6.30am. On contamination the crew will not come back, so the bin waits for the next scheduled collection.

Does Guildford collect food waste every week?

Yes, and it has done for years. Surrey has run household food waste collections since 2013, so the national rules that came in on 31 March 2026 did not change Guildford’s schedule.

Sources

• Guildford Borough Council, 2026 service guide, for the colour-coded borough-wide 2026 calendar and the bank holiday dates, read 31 August 2026

• Guildford Borough Council, find your bin day and the collection lookup tool

• Guildford Borough Council, what goes in my bins
• Guildford Borough Council, waste collection service guidelines and the 2026 service guide
• Guildford Borough Council, garden waste service and pay for a garden waste collection
• Guildford Borough Council, report a missed collection, assisted collections, order a bin and bulky waste
• Surrey Environment Partnership, Simpler Recycling
• Surrey County Council, Guildford Community Recycling Centre
• Surrey LGR Hub, frequently asked questions

Checked against Guildford Borough Council’s own pages on 4 August 2026. Prices and rules change, and the borough is being reorganised in April 2027, so confirm on the council’s site before relying on a date.