Find your Crowborough bin day by postcode and see which bin is due: food weekly, rubbish and recycling alternate, and how Christmas moves collections.

Your Crowborough bin day depends on your street, and Wealden District Council’s bin day search is the only place that gives it for a specific house: enter a postcode, pick the address, and it shows the next date for every container.

The quick answer

  • Rubbish (black bin) and recycling (green bin) go out on the same weekday and alternate, one one week and the other the next.
  • Food waste (orange-topped container) goes out every week, and can be a different day.
  • Garden waste (brown bin) is fortnightly for paying subscribers, and can be a different day too.
  • Bins must be at the edge of your property by 7am.
  • Bank holidays do not move your collection. Only Christmas does, and the Christmas 2026 dates are not published yet.
  • Missed bin? Report it by 5pm the day after online or on 01323 443322.

Last checked 15 October 2026 against Wealden District Council and East Sussex County Council.

Which bin is which

Wealden runs four containers. Biffa collects them under contract to the council.

Container What goes in it How often
Green recycling bin Glass bottles and jars, cardboard, paper, food and drinks cans, foil, aerosols, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, plastic film and bags, cartons, toothpaste tubes Fortnightly
Black rubbish bin Household waste that cannot be recycled Fortnightly, on the alternate week
Brown garden waste bin Grass, leaves, hedge trimmings, small branches, flowers, weeds Fortnightly, paid subscription
Orange-topped food container All food waste, in compostable liners Weekly

Some older recycling bins in the district are still black rather than green, which the council acknowledges on its household waste collections page. If yours is black on black, the sticker on the lid is what tells the crew apart.

Rubbish and recycling share the same day of the week and alternate. Garden waste and food waste can each fall on a different day from the other two, so a Monday household is not necessarily a Monday household four times over.

Some rules the crews actually enforce:

  • bins must be at the edge of your property by 7am
  • the rubbish bin lid has to close, and extra rubbish beside it will not be taken
  • extra recycling is allowed in white or clear bags, never black ones, but glass must go inside the bin
  • batteries, small electricals and vapes go in a separate carrier bag on top of either bin

Wealden’s recycling is bulked at a depot in Maresfield and then sent to the Viridor sorting facility at Crayford in Kent, according to the council’s collection service FAQs.

Find your own day

The council’s bin day search takes a postcode, then an address, and returns the next date for all four containers plus a downloadable year calendar. It is the only reliable answer for a specific house, because rounds vary street by street.

Bank holidays and Christmas

The statement on the calendar is unambiguous, and the printed dates back it up. We checked two of Wealden’s 2026 calendars.

  • On the Monday round, only two dates in the whole year were marked as revised: Tuesday 30 December 2025 and Tuesday 6 January 2026.
  • On the Friday round, three were revised: Friday 26 December became Monday 29 December, Friday 2 January became Monday 5 January, and Friday 9 January became Saturday 10 January.
  • Good Friday, Easter Monday, 4 May, 25 May and 31 August 2026 appear as normal collection dates on both.

So Christmas is the only period that moves you, and last year every affected collection moved later, not earlier. Wealden had not published the Christmas 2026 dates when we checked on 15 October 2026; last year it confirmed them on 17 November. The current calendars stop in mid-December. Our Christmas bin collections page has the full 2025 table and will carry the 2026 dates when they appear.

Garden waste is different again: the council’s garden waste page says brown bins are not collected for a two-week period over Christmas and New Year.

Food waste is new, and the rules are strict

Weekly food waste collections started across Wealden in 2026 under the government’s Simpler Recycling regulations; the council’s food waste page says every council in England has provided them since March 2026. The council reported more than 1,200 tonnes collected in the first 12 weeks.

Three things catch people out, all listed on the council’s food waste page:

  • only the orange-topped outdoor container goes out, not the kitchen caddy
  • waste must be inside compostable liners carrying the seedling logo, and loose food waste will not be collected
  • the food round can be a different day from your rubbish and recycling

Garden waste costs £66 a bin

The brown bin is a subscription. It runs from 1 August to 31 July and costs £66 per bin for 2026/27, on the council’s garden waste page.

  • You can take up to four bins, each at £66.
  • A 140-litre bin costs the same as a 240-litre one. The council says the cost is in the vehicles and crews, not the bin.
  • There are no concessions or discounts.
  • Joining part way through the year is charged quarterly pro rata.
  • Subscribed bins carry a licence sticker. Bins without one are not emptied and may be removed.
  • You can share a bin with a neighbour, but it is registered to one address and collected there.
  • Moving house does not transfer the subscription and does not get you a refund.

Wealden’s garden waste is composted at the Woodlands plant at Whitesmith, and the resulting soil conditioner is sold back at the county’s recycling sites.

Bulky waste: £67 for up to three items

A bulky collection costs £67 for up to three items, with each additional item at £14, per the council’s bulky household waste page. Bookings can be made up to 15 days ahead.

The council collects fridges, televisions, washing machines, beds, headboards, mattresses, sofas, plastic baths, lawn mowers and cookers. It will not take asbestos, builders’ waste, flammable material, storage heaters or garden waste.

Two conditions matter on the day:

  • items must be outside and accessible by 7am, and if the crew cannot reach them there is no refund
  • torn upholstered furniture must be taped, wrapped or bagged before collection, under the Environment Agency’s rules on persistent organic pollutants

Before paying, it is worth checking whether the item is reusable. The council points residents to the NOW Charity, which collects furniture and electrical goods free of charge across East Sussex.

Missed collection: you have until 5pm the next day

Report a missed bin by 5pm the day after the scheduled collection. After that the council will not return and you wait for the next round.

The council states this deadline two ways, and the difference matters. Its missed collection page says “5pm the day after the scheduled collection day”. Its household waste collections page and its FAQs both say “5pm the following working day”. If your collection day is a Friday, those are not the same deadline. Report it on the Saturday and you are safe under either reading.

A missed collection only qualifies if you put the right bin out, put it out before 7am, and it was not contaminated. Reporting goes through a My Wealden account, so it is worth registering before you need it rather than on the morning you do.

The tip: book first, and check the winter hours

East Sussex County Council runs the recycling sites, not Wealden. You must book a slot before you visit, a rule introduced on 24 November 2025. Slots are mostly 30 minutes and can be booked up to two weeks ahead, or the same day if one is free. Full details are on our Crowborough tip opening times page.

Crowborough’s site is at Wealden Industrial Estate, Farningham Road, TN6 2JR.

Site Weekdays Saturday Sunday
Crowborough 9am to 5pm 9am to 1pm 9am to 1pm
Maresfield 8am to 4pm 8am to 4pm 9am to 4pm
Heathfield 8am to 4pm 8am to 4pm 9am to 4pm
Hailsham 8am to 4pm 9am to 1pm 9am to 1pm

Those are the four sites inside Wealden district, as listed on the county’s site pages on 15 October 2026. Maresfield, Heathfield and Hailsham are on winter hours from 1 October to 31 March. Crowborough’s page carries no seasonal range, so its hours are the same all year. It did close on the August bank holiday when the other three stayed open, so check its page before a bank holiday visit.

Other things the county’s site rules set out:

  • the sites are free for East Sussex residents, and you must bring proof of residency
  • anyone from outside East Sussex pays £8.75 per visit
  • vans can only visit on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
  • Crowborough has a 2 metre height limit and takes trailers up to 1.8 metres
  • rubble, soil and plasterboard are free up to two 50-litre bags a week, then £6.50 per extra bag, item or sheet
  • tyres cost £2.70 each and bonded asbestos £8.00 per bag or sheet, with no free allowance

Two Crowborough-specific points are buried in the county’s lists. The site is one of only four in East Sussex that accepts plasterboard, alongside Eastbourne, Hastings and Newhaven. It accepts neither tyres nor bonded asbestos: for tyres the nearest sites are Maresfield and Lewes, and for asbestos it is Heathfield.

Also on Crowborough Today

Frequently asked questions

What day are bins collected in Crowborough?

It depends on your street. Rounds run Monday to Friday and vary road by road, so the only reliable answer is Wealden District Council’s bin day search, which takes your postcode and gives the next date for all four containers.

Is it a black bin or green bin week in Crowborough?

Rubbish (black) and recycling (green) go out on the same weekday and alternate fortnightly. Food waste goes out every week. The council’s bin day search shows which one is due next at your address.

Do Crowborough bin collections change on bank holidays?

No, except at Christmas. Wealden’s calendar says all other bank holiday collections take place as normal. The Christmas 2026 dates had not been published when we checked on 15 October 2026.