Slough Bin Collection Days: Christmas Runs 3 Weeks Late

Slough Borough Council will tell you your next collection date if you type in your road name. It will not tell you that the Christmas catch-up runs for three weeks and does not end until 16 January 2027, that one bulky item costs £54 whatever it is, or that Langley recycling centre shuts next week until spring.

This page pulls the whole cluster together. Every figure was checked on 1 September 2026 against the council’s own pages, with each source linked beside the fact it supports.

The bins, and what goes in them

Slough runs four containers. Three are wheelie bins on a fortnightly cycle, and the food caddy is weekly (Slough Borough Council, bin collections).

• Grey bin, general rubbish. Crisp packets, plastic film, polystyrene, nappies and bagged pet waste. The standard bin is 180 litres.
• Red bin, recycling. Cans, tins, glass jars and bottles with lids on, flattened cardboard, plastic bottles, plastic pots, tubs and trays, paper. Everything clean, dry and loose. The standard bin is 240 litres.
• Green bin, garden waste. Subscription only. Grass, hedge trimmings, leaves, twigs and small branches.
• Silver caddy, food waste. Weekly, on the same day as your wheelie bin.

The red bin has a longer banned list than most councils. These are the ones that catch people out (what goes in my bins):

• shredded paper and tissue paper
• Christmas cards and wrapping paper
• pizza boxes and takeaway drinks cups
• milk, soup and juice cartons (Tetrapak)
• polystyrene, foil, aerosols, batteries and textiles

Put recycling in loose. A bagged red bin will not be emptied, and you will get a flyer on the handle telling you why.

Food waste is now borough-wide. It was rolled out in phases between November and January after a trial in five areas, and every household should have an indoor caddy plus either an outdoor caddy or a shared communal bin. Both caddies lock. You can line the indoor one with any bag, including a carrier bag, and no special liners are needed. The waste goes to an anaerobic digestion plant in Surrey (food waste).

Finding your collection day

Use the council’s bin day directory. Search by road name only, with no house number or house name. The council’s own example is typing “Bath” to find Bath Road.

Garden waste dates are only in that directory. They are deliberately left out of the bank holiday tables below.

Bank holidays: every one moves you a day later

Slough slides the whole week on by one day after a bank holiday, and Friday rounds go to Saturday. That applies to wheelie bins and food waste.

After the summer bank holiday on Monday 31 August 2026, this is the published week (bank holiday collection dates 2026-2027):

The council publishes the whole year at once, so the 2026 pattern is already on record. Good Friday was the one exception: only the Friday round moved, to Saturday 4 April, and Monday to Thursday that week were unchanged. Easter Monday, the early May bank holiday and the spring bank holiday each pushed the full week on by a day.

Christmas 2026: three weeks before you are back to normal

This is the part the council does not flag, and it is the biggest single thing on this page. The Christmas catch-up in Slough does not end in early January. It runs until Saturday 16 January 2027.

The week of 21 to 24 December is unchanged. After that, every collection day up to 15 January moves.

Read that as three stages. The Christmas and New Year weeks slip by up to four days. The week of 4 January is still two days out. The week of 11 January is one day out, and normal service resumes on Monday 18 January 2027.

One thing to be aware of if you are checking the council’s page yourself: it lists a row as “Thursday 31 January” in the normal-day column of the New Year block. From its position between Wednesday 30 December and Friday 1 January, that is Thursday 31 December.

There are no garden waste collections over the two-week Christmas period at all (garden waste collection service).

Garden waste: £55 a year

Green bin collections are subscription only.

• £55 a year, which buys 25 collections, one every two weeks.
• A subscription runs for a calendar year from the date you buy it, not from April. Buy on 20 May and it expires on 19 May the following year.
• You can hold up to four green bins and four subscriptions at one address.
• 50% discount where the sole occupiers of the property are on pension credit.
• If you do not already have a green bin from the council, the bin itself is £52 (replace damaged, stolen or missing bins).

Bulky waste: the £54 minimum is the number that matters

Slough charges £19 per item for general bulky waste and £29.70 each for fridges and freezers. Neither is the price most people actually pay, because there is a £54 minimum charge on every booking (bulky waste collections).

The council’s own worked examples:

So the first three items are close to free at the margin, and booking a single item is the worst value on the list. Limits are five general items per collection, or two fridges, freezers or fridge freezers.

Counting is stricter than you might expect. A table plus four chairs is five items, which uses the whole allowance. A three-piece suite is three items. A bed base and mattress is two. A wardrobe is one, even dismantled.

Households where every occupant is a pensioner or registered disabled get £10 off two bulky collections a year.

Two conditions worth reading before you pay. Payment is taken at the time of booking, the booking cannot be changed afterwards, and there are no refunds if you cancel. Collection is not on a date you choose: it happens on your next scheduled domestic waste collection day, and the booking appears in the portal three working days after you make it.

Missed collections: report after 7pm, within two working days

The reporting window is short and the start time is unusual. Report a missed grey, red, green or communal bin after 7pm on your collection day and within two working days, through the Waste and Recycling Portal, which needs an account. Missed food waste has the same window (rejected or missed bins).

If you have already reported it, do not report it again. Leave the bin out for the next scheduled collection.

Before you report, check it was not a rejection rather than a miss. The council lists these reasons for leaving a bin behind:

• the lid was not completely closed
• the bin weighed more than 30kg
• the bin was not out and accessible by 6am
• there were wrong items inside, which earns a flyer on the handle
• there was excess rubbish beside or on top of the bin
• it was not a council-issued bin

Excess rubbish is never collected in Slough, and the council warns that waste left outside a bin may be treated as fly-tipping or littering (excess rubbish).

Replacement bins

The larger grey bin is only for households of six or more people, and you have to upload proof of the number of occupants, such as bank statements, bills or child benefit letters for each person. The council will collect up to two red bins from one property.

Recycling centres: Langley closes on 8 September

Langley recycling centre closes at 6pm on Tuesday 8 September 2026 for essential maintenance and will not reopen until spring 2027. That leaves two sites for Slough residents (find a local waste and recycling centre).

Chalvey HWRC, White Hart Road, off Spackmans Way, SL1 2SF, is the council’s own site.

• Open seven days a week. 9am to 6pm in summer, 1 April to 30 September. 9am to 5pm in winter, 1 October to 31 March. Last entry is 15 minutes before closing (opening hours).
• Open on bank holidays. Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and open 9am to 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
• No permit and no booking. ANPR and CCTV monitor the site, and the council says unusually regular users will be investigated.
• Height barrier of 1.7 metres. Vans and pickups are not allowed in at all. Slough residents in a taller vehicle are sent to the Waste Transfer Station weighbridge in a different part of the site, where staff assess the waste and can refuse entry.
• Trailers are capped at 1.5 metres long by 0.91 metres wide.
• You cannot walk in. Carrying waste in on foot, or parking outside and carrying it in, is not permitted.
• Bring proof of address and photo ID. The site is shared with Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead residents, so it does check (access requirements).

Burnham, Crowpiece Lane, SL2 3TG, is run by Buckinghamshire Council. It opens 9am to 4pm on Monday, Tuesday and Friday to Sunday, and on all bank holidays except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. It is shut Wednesday and Thursday.

DIY waste is charged, after a small free allowance

Repairs, alterations and landscaping waste count as construction and demolition waste, so Chalvey can charge for it. You get a free allowance first: up to four visits in any four week period, and on each you can leave either two 50 litre bags of DIY waste or one large item roughly 2m by 0.75m by 0.7m, about the size of a bath. Beyond that you pay, by card only, before you tip anything (non household items and disposal costs).

A sample of the published rates:

Mud and soil are not accepted at all.

More Slough local information

• Parking in Slough: council car park tariffs, the free periods you still have to register, and permit costs.
• Slough council tax bands: the full A to H table for 2026/27, including the three parishes.
• Slough roadworks and travel: current closures and restrictions.