Ealing collects as normal on the 31 August bank holiday. Your bin day, what goes in each bin, garden waste at £75, and why last Christmas ran four weeks late.

Monday 31 August 2026 is the summer bank holiday, and Ealing is collecting bins that day as if it were any other Monday.

We did not take that from a council notice, because the council has not published one. We asked the council’s own collection-day service. For 11 Leighton Road in West Ealing it returns a black bin due on 31 August 2026. For 195 Boston Road in Hanwell, a different round in a different town, it returns the same date. Both are Monday rounds and neither has been moved.

This page covers:

  • your bin day and what belongs in each bin
  • what garden waste and bulky collections cost this year
  • the missed collection reporting window, which is far shorter than people expect
  • the booking rule at Greenford Road that turns people away at the gate
  • what happened last Christmas, which is the real disruption to plan around

Which bins Ealing uses

Ealing Council collects from most houses using three containers, and the two big ones alternate.

Bin What it takes How often
Blue wheelie bin Mixed recycling Every other week
Black wheelie bin Household rubbish that cannot be recycled Every other week, alternating with blue
Small green food bin Food waste Every week
Green wheelie bin or sacks Garden waste, subscription only Every 2 weeks, paused in winter

The standard wheelie bin is 180 litres, which the council reckons holds about four bin bags. The larger one is 360 litres, about seven bags.

Not every home gets wheelie bins. Flats above shops and homes on estates are usually on black sacks for rubbish and clear mixed recycling sacks. Those are collected weekly rather than fortnightly. The clear sacks are free, delivered three times a year.

We checked 2 Argyle Road in West Ealing on the council’s finder. It comes back as black rubbish bags and clear recycling bags, both on a Thursday, with no separate food bin.

Sources: Ealing Council, Your rubbish and recycling service and Find your rubbish and recycling collection day.

What goes in the blue bin

The council will only take these seven things in the blue bin:

  • cardboard and thin card
  • paper, envelopes and junk mail
  • newspapers and magazines
  • plastic bottles, pots and tubs
  • metal tins and cans, aerosol cans and clean foil
  • glass bottles and jars
  • food and drink cartons

Two rules catch people out. Textiles and batteries must be bagged and left on top of the bin, never inside it. And thin plastics, so plastic bags, crisp packets and bread bags, are not collected from home at all; the council points you at supermarket collection points.

If the crew leaves a white tag on your blue bin, that is a rejection, not a missed collection. Reporting it as missed will not bring anyone back. You have to take the wrong item out, remove the tag, and put the bin out again on your next scheduled recycling day.

Source: Ealing Council, Household recycling.

Find your collection day

Ealing collects Monday to Friday, between 7am and 5pm, and the time can move around within that. Put your bins at the front of your property, inside your boundary and not on the pavement, by 7am.

If you are on sacks rather than bins, the council asks you to put them out on the morning of collection day, not the night before, to stop animals splitting them. Putting rubbish out more than a day early can be treated as fly-tipping.

Use the council’s own address lookup at Find your collection day. It is the only accurate source for your address, and it is the tool we used for every collection date on this page.

Bank holidays: the answer for 2026

Ealing publishes nothing about bank holiday collections. So we checked the council’s collection-day service directly, on 24 August 2026, for addresses on Monday rounds in two different towns:

  • 11 Leighton Road, West Ealing (W13 9EL), round REF6 MonFort1: black bin due 31 August 2026.
  • 195 Boston Road, Hanwell (W7 2AA), round REF5 MonFort1: black bin due 31 August 2026.

31 August is the summer bank holiday for England and Wales, per GOV.UK. Neither round has been pushed back.

That is a check of two rounds on one date, not a published policy, so it is worth confirming your own address on the lookup before the next bank holiday. But the pattern is clear enough: Ealing works the August bank holiday.

Christmas is the one that moves, and it moves for weeks

The Christmas period is a different matter entirely, and the scale of it surprises people. Over Christmas 2025 and new year 2026, Ealing did not simply skip two days and catch up. Every round in the borough ran late for four consecutive weeks.

  • Collections due Christmas Day, Thursday 25 December, went on Monday 29 December.
  • Collections due Boxing Day, Friday 26 December, went on Tuesday 30 December.
  • The slippage then rolled forward through January. A Friday round due 9 January was collected on Monday 12 January. A Friday round due 16 January was collected on Saturday 17 January.
  • Collections returned to normal on Monday 19 January 2026.

Source: Ealing Council, Rubbish and recycling collections, Christmas 2025, and its service changes notice for the 2025/26 period.

The equivalent table for Christmas 2026 has not been published yet. Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday and the Boxing Day holiday is Monday 28 December, so Friday and Monday rounds are the ones to watch. We will update this page when the council puts the dates out.

Garden waste: £75, and it stops for winter

Garden waste is a paid subscription in Ealing, and it is not collected in the normal black bin at all.

Subscription Collections Standard Concessionary or second bin
Full year, April 2026 to March 2027 23 £75 £50
From July 2026 16 £52.17 £34.78
From October 2026 9 £29.35 £19.57

The concessionary rate is for households on means-tested benefits or aged over 65, and the council says it will not be applied retrospectively after payment, so pick the right price at checkout.

Three things worth knowing:

  • Collections pause over winter. They stop in December 2026 and restart during February 2027. The council cut the pause from 11 weeks to 8 this year.
  • Your garden waste day may not be your recycling day. The council changed the rounds for 2026/27: most subscribers are now collected on blue bin week, but some have moved to black bin week. We checked 1502 Greenford Road, Greenford, and its garden bin is on the same fortnight as the black bin, not the blue.
  • The crew will only take bins carrying the sticker and sacks carrying the tag. No sticker, no collection.

The price is confirmed by the council’s garden waste collection page and by Around Ealing’s 10 March 2026 announcement.

Garden waste is also taken free at the Greenford Road and Abbey Road recycling centres, if you would rather not subscribe.

Bulky collections: £30 for up to six items

One flat fee, £30 for up to six items, with no limit on how many collections you book in a year. More than six items needs a quote through My Account. There are no refunds and no discounts.

What counts as an item is where the money is:

  • A bed base and mattress count as two items, not one.
  • A box of several things counts as one item, as long as one person can lift it.
  • Broken furniture must be bundled and tied, bagged or boxed. Loose pieces count separately.

The list of what Ealing will not take is long. It includes:

  • DIY waste, builders’ rubbish, bricks, concrete, earth, sand and gravel
  • iron baths, pianos and boilers or chemical storage tanks
  • asbestos, paint, oil, gas cylinders, tyres and batteries
  • anything that has been in contact with mould or a pest infestation

There is one exclusion that is purely about where you live. Ealing does not collect bulky waste from red routes, naming the A40 and the North Circular. If your home is on one, the council directs you to the West London Waste Authority’s own bulky service instead.

Items go out by 7am, at the front of the property, at pavement level but not on the pavement, and the crew comes between 7am and 3pm. They will not go into a back garden and they will not take anything you did not list.

Source: Ealing Council, Bulky items collection.

Missed collection: you have until 1pm the next day

This is the tightest rule on the page and the easiest one to fall foul of.

You cannot report a missed collection before 5pm on your collection day, and you must report it by 1pm on the following day. Outside that window the form is no use to you.

Before you report it, the council asks you to check that:

  • the bin was out at your boundary before 7am
  • the crew has already been down your road, remembering that the food waste round can come at a different time from the rubbish or recycling
  • there is no tag on the bin explaining why it was left

If the report is accepted, the council says it will come back by the end of the next working day.

Report it through Reporting a missed bin collection, or call 020 8825 6000. The contact centre is open 9am to 5pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 10am to 5pm on Wednesday.

Bins: what they cost

Item Cost
Replacement or new standard rubbish bin (180 litre) £50
Replacement or new large rubbish bin (360 litre) £75
Extra recycling bin Free
Extra food waste bin Free
Clear recycling sacks Free, three rolls a year

Rubbish bins are the only ones you pay for. A larger bin is not automatic: you need a large household, a medical need or another reason, and the council will check you are recycling properly first. Delivery is around 10 working days.

If you cannot move your bins on collection day, ask for help moving your bins.

Source: Ealing Council, Order a bin, box or bags.

The tip: Greenford Road, and you must book

The borough has exactly one reuse and recycling centre, at Greenford Road, Greenford, UB6 9AP. Turning up without a booking does not work: the council says residents without one will not be allowed in.
1 April to 30 September Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 8am to 5pm
1 October to 31 March Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 8am to 4pm
Wednesday and Thursday Closed to the public, all year
Closed also Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day
Last booking slot, summer 4pm to 4.30pm
Last booking slot, winter 3pm to 3.30pm
Booking Up to 2 slots per household per week, 30-minute slots, bookable 2 weeks ahead
Bring Photo ID and proof of address
Time on site 30 minutes maximum for cars
Pedestrians Not allowed

Two charging rules to know before you load the car:

  • DIY and building waste is not free. You get two 50-litre rubble bags, or one item no bigger than 2m x 0.75m x 0.7m, free each week, and the allowance does not roll over. Above that it is £28.55 per 100kg. Soil, turf, fencing, sheds, bricks, rubble, slabs, tiles, plasterboard, timber, doors, windows, kitchen and bathroom units, plumbing and wiring all count.
  • Mattresses are limited to two free per household per year. Beyond that, or more than two visits a year, it is treated as trade waste at £15 per mattress.

Paint, carpets, underlay, washing machines, fridges and freezers stay free for residents who have sorted them for recycling and can prove their address. Vans must enter over the weighbridge because of the height restriction.

Asbestos is not accepted at Greenford Road in any form. Cement-bonded asbestos goes to Abbey Road in Brent instead.

Ealing residents can also use three other West London Waste Authority sites, all by advance booking with ID:

  • Space Waye, North Feltham Trading Estate, Pier Road, Feltham TW14 0TH (Hounslow)
  • Townmead Road, off Mortlake Road, Kew TW9 4EL (Richmond)
  • Abbey Road, London NW10 7TJ (Brent)

Sources: Ealing Council, Greenford Road reuse and recycling centre, booking a time slot and alternative reuse and recycling centres.

Frequently asked questions

Are bins collected on the bank holiday in Ealing?

For the summer bank holiday on Monday 31 August 2026, yes. The council’s own collection-day service returns 31 August as the black bin date for Monday rounds we checked in West Ealing and Hanwell. Ealing does not publish a bank holiday policy, so check your own address on the lookup.

How often are bins collected in Ealing?

Rubbish and recycling alternate fortnightly, food waste is weekly, and subscribed garden waste is fortnightly except in winter. Homes on sacks rather than wheelie bins, typically flats above shops and estates, are collected weekly.

How much is garden waste collection in Ealing?

£75 for a full year of 23 collections from April 2026 to March 2027, or £50 at the concessionary rate for households on means-tested benefits or aged over 65. Joining in July costs £52.17 and in October £29.35.

How much does Ealing charge for bulky waste collection?

£30 for up to six items. A bed base and mattress count as two items. There is no limit on how many collections you book in a year.

How long do I have to report a missed bin collection in Ealing?

From 5pm on your collection day until 1pm the following day. Outside that window the council’s form will not take the report.

Do I need to book the Greenford tip?

Yes. Residents arriving at Greenford Road without a booking are turned away. You get up to two 30-minute slots per household per week and you need photo ID and proof of address.

What happens to bin collections at Christmas in Ealing?

Expect weeks of disruption, not days. Over Christmas 2025 every round in the borough ran late until Monday 19 January 2026. The 2026 timetable has not been published yet.

More Ealing local information

Sources

Prices and opening hours change. Confirm anything that matters with the council before you rely on it.