Black sacks and food waste go out weekly in Brentwood, recycling alternates. Bank holidays never move a collection, only Christmas does. Garden waste is £60.
Brentwood Borough Council collects household rubbish and food waste every week. Recycling alternates: blue sacks one week, then white sacks, glass and garden waste the next.
The part most people get wrong is the bank holiday. Brentwood does not move collections for them. The council’s own collection day page says there are “no changes to bin collections during bank holidays, apart from around Christmas and New Year”.
This page covers the whole cluster: which container takes what, the festive changes, what garden waste and bulky collections cost this year, how long you have to report a missed bin, and where the tips are. Every figure is from Brentwood Borough Council or Essex County Council and is linked. It was checked on 2 September 2026.
Only Brentwood borough is covered here. Neighbouring Epping Forest, Basildon and Havering run different services.
Find your collection day
Enter your postcode and address in the council’s collection day map. It gives your day and what needs to go out that week. You can also sign up for SMS text reminders.
Put everything at the kerbside at the front of your property by 7.30am. The council says that if it is not there by then it will assume you do not need a collection. Do not put sacks out the night before, because animals scavenge them.
Which container takes what
Every week:
- Black sacks for household rubbish. Black only. The council says other colours may not be collected, because crews will assume the bag holds recycling or garden waste.
- Food caddy for cooked and uncooked food waste.
One week in two:
- Blue sack for paper and cardboard. Fold large boxes flat and put them under the blue sack.
The other week:
- White sack for cans, plastics and, since 1 April 2026, food and drink cartons.
- Red box for glass bottles and jars.
- Brown bin or green bags for garden waste, if you subscribe.
Cartons were added to the white sack on 1 April 2026 under the Simpler Recycling Regulations. The council asks you to rinse them, squash or flatten them, and put the cap back on.
You can use a wheeled bin for your black sacks, but the council’s household waste page says it will not as a rule be mechanically tipped, and the sacks inside must be standard refuse sacks rather than carrier bags. Brown wheeled bins are reserved for garden waste and must not be used for rubbish. Mixed recycling or glass presented in a wheeled bin will not be collected.
Reusable sacks, food caddies and red boxes can be ordered online free of charge.
Sources: Brentwood Borough Council, Recycling and Putting your bins out.
Bank holidays and Christmas
Bank holidays do not change anything in Brentwood. Easter, the two May bank holidays and the August bank holiday all leave the rounds where they are. That is unusual, and it is worth knowing, because most neighbouring Essex districts push collections back a day.
Christmas and New Year are the exception. The council publishes a revised festive timetable each December, and the dates shift for about three weeks. The 2026/27 festive dates are not on the council’s site yet, so this page does not quote them. Check the collection day map in December, or take the text reminders.
Garden waste is the other thing that stops. The subscription buys 25 collections a year rather than 26, because there is none over the Christmas holidays.
Source: Brentwood Borough Council, Collection day.
Garden waste: £60 a year
Garden waste is a paid subscription. It costs £60 for the year, which buys 25 fortnightly collections.
- The price includes hire of a brown wheeled bin. It is reused stock, cleaned rather than new.
- You get a sticker permit showing your address and the contract expiry date. A bin without a valid sticker will not be emptied.
- If you would rather not have a bin, biodegradable green sacks cost £6 for a roll of 10. They are fully compostable, but the council warns they have a shelf life of one to two years and need dry storage.
- There are no full or part refunds.
Apply or renew through the council’s garden waste page, or call 01277 312500.
Bulky collections: £25 then £15
- £25 for the first item.
- £15 for each additional item.
- General bulky collections run on Tuesdays. Padded furniture, which the council handles separately as POPs waste, is collected on Fridays.
- Put items somewhere visible outside your property by 7.30am.
- Cancel more than 24 hours before 7.30am on collection day for a full refund. Cancel later and there is a £13 admin fee.
The council will not take American or industrial fridge freezers, paint, asbestos, pianos, garden sheds, gas canisters, boilers, chemicals, construction waste, or mirrors and windows.
Book through bulky waste collections.
Missed a collection? You have until the next working day
This is the deadline that catches people out. Brentwood will not come back for a missed bin unless you report it on the collection day itself or the following working day.
Before you report it, the council asks you to check that:
- your sacks or bins were out from 7.30am on the right day
- they were at the kerbside at the front of the property
- the right items went out, in the right containers, on the right week
- access was not blocked by a parked vehicle
- the sacks were not excessively heavy
Also look for a “Sorry to Leave You” sticker. That means the crew rejected the collection, usually for the wrong sack, the wrong contents, or a non-council sack.
Once reported, the council aims to collect by the end of the next working day. Report it on the missed collection page.
Recycling centres
Two tips serve the borough, both run by Essex County Council rather than Brentwood.
Brentwood Recycling Centre, Coxtie Green Road, CM14 5PN.
- 9am to 5pm from 1 March to 15 October.
- 9am to 4pm from 16 October to the end of February.
- Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and from 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
- Takes small quantities of self-completed DIY and household construction waste.
Mountnessing Recycling Centre, Roman Road. No DIY or construction waste, and no vans, pick-ups or commercial vehicles.
You must book a slot in advance to drive in. Blue badge holders, pedestrians and cyclists do not need to book. Booking is free, but it is needed for every visit, and you may be asked to prove you live in Essex. Vans, pick-ups and large trailers use a separate booking system. Book through Love Essex.
There is also a small bring site at the Works Depot, The Drive, Warley, run by the borough council. It takes cans and plastics, paper and card, cartons, textiles, glass and small electricals.
Source: Brentwood Borough Council, Recycling centres.
Fortnightly rubbish is on the table
Brentwood has the worst recycling rate in Essex. The council says so itself. Its rate has fallen from 49% ten years ago to 37% in 2025.
Between October 2025 and April 2026 the council trialled a different system on 17 roads in central Ingatestone, covering just over 500 households. Rubbish went into a 180-litre wheeled bin collected fortnightly, and recycling moved to single-use sacks. Food, glass and garden waste were untouched.
What the council reported to its Clean and Green Committee on 16 February 2026:
- recycling up 10% since the trial began
- the gain came mostly from less residual waste and more food and glass recycling
- no rise in visits to Mountnessing Recycling Centre, and no rise in fly-tipping
- of more than 100 survey responses, 69.5% preferred wheeled bins to black sacks
- residents did raise concerns about bin capacity and sack durability
The trial ended in the week beginning 13 April 2026, and weekly black sack collections resumed on Tuesday 14 April. Households were allowed to keep the wheeled bin.
Nothing has changed borough-wide yet. The council has committed to a public consultation before any long-term change, and it says that consultation will happen later this year. If you have a view on fortnightly rubbish collections in Brentwood, that is the moment.
Two numbers explain why the council is pushing: a waste composition study in autumn 2024 found over 55% of what goes in Brentwood black bags could be recycled, and a separate study found 34% of black bag contents is food waste.
Sources: Brentwood Borough Council, Ingatestone bin pilot and Ingatestone’s waste pilot boosts recycling rates, 20 February 2026.
What this page does not cover
Assisted collections for residents with mobility problems exist, and the council handles clinical and trade waste separately. Both are outside what is set out here. The council’s waste and recycling section is the place to start for those.
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