Canterbury Christmas Bin Collections: 2026 Dates Not Out Yet

Canterbury City Council has not published its Christmas and New Year bin collection dates for 2026/27. Its Christmas recycling page still carries last year’s table, and the council last updated that page on 15 December 2025, which is a fair guide to when this year’s will appear. Until then the useful facts are the shape of last year’s changes, the garden waste pause, which is already fixed, and the three ways to get rid of a real tree, two of which need you to act in the first week of January.

The quick answer

No revised dates for Christmas 2026 exist yet. Last year every collection from Christmas Day onwards moved back, by two days at first and then by one, and the rounds were back to normal from Monday 12 January. Garden waste collections stop after 18 December 2026 and restart on 18 January 2027. The bank holidays this year are Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December and Friday 1 January, so expect two disrupted weeks rather than one.

What the council has published so far

The council’s Christmas recycling campaign page is the place it puts the festive dates each year. On 25 September 2026 the table on it is still the one for Christmas 2025, starting with “Thursday 25 December” and ending with a Saturday catch-up on 10 January. Nothing on the page refers to 2026.

The dates are set street by street rather than town by town, so the finished answer for your own address will be in the council’s find your bin collection dates tool once the festive calendar is loaded. Our Canterbury bin collection days page covers the normal rounds, the 6am rule and what goes in which bin.

Last year’s pattern, which is a guide and not this year’s dates

This is the table the council published for Christmas 2025 and New Year 2026. These are not this year’s dates. They show how the council handles the fortnight: no collection on the bank holidays, everything afterwards slides back, and Saturdays are used to catch up.

Source: Canterbury City Council, Christmas recycling. Collections in the days before Christmas Day were not listed, so they ran as normal.

Two things about that table matter for 2026. First, the council did not skip anything: every round was collected, just later. Second, the disruption ran for a full fortnight after Christmas, because two bank holidays in consecutive weeks each pushed the rounds back again.

Why 2026 is shaped differently

Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday. The Boxing Day holiday moves to a substitute day on Monday 28 December, and New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK bank holidays). That puts a bank holiday at the end of one week and the start of the next, then another at the end of the week after.

The council’s standard bank holiday rule, set out on its own bank holiday bin collection changes page, is that every collection in the affected week moves back a day and Friday’s round lands on the Saturday. Applied to this Christmas, a Friday round would be collected on Saturday 26 December, and the week beginning 28 December would run a day late throughout. That is the pattern, not a timetable. Last year the council departed from a simple one-day shift at Christmas itself, so check the published dates in December rather than working from the rule.

Garden waste: the pause is already fixed

The one festive date that is confirmed is the garden waste break. The council’s garden waste FAQ says subscribers’ green bins are collected every two weeks “from 30 March 2026 until 18 December 2026, and then from 18 January 2027 to 26 March 2027”. So there are no green bin collections between 19 December and 17 January. Garden waste can go to the Canterbury or Herne Bay tip in the meantime; hours and the booking rule are on our Canterbury tip opening times page.

Getting rid of a real Christmas tree

Last year the council offered three routes, and said plainly that it no longer sends trucks round looking for trees from households without a garden waste subscription. The 2026/27 details are not published, but this is what ran in January 2026:

• Pilgrims Hospice charity collection. Trees were collected between Friday 9 and Monday 12 January 2026. It was free, with a donation encouraged, and you had to register online by 8am on Monday 5 January.
• Whitstable RNLI tree chipping. Take the tree to Whitstable Lifeboat Station at the harbour on the first Sunday of January (Sunday 4 January in 2026) from 10am, for a suggested £3 donation. No booking.
• Garden waste subscribers. Put the tree out with your first green bin collection of the new year, chopped up inside the bin if possible or left beside it. In 2026 that was the week beginning 19 or 26 January depending on your round.
• Everyone else. The tree goes to the Canterbury or Herne Bay household waste recycling centre, which needs a booked slot.

What goes in the bins over Christmas

The council’s seasonal list is worth having to hand, because glittery paper is the commonest festive mistake.

• Blue bin or box: plastic advent calendar trays, plastic trays and pots, tins and cans, glass bottles and jars, foil scrunched to tennis-ball size, mince pie cases, sweet and biscuit tins. Not artificial trees, batteries, baubles, tinsel, flexible plastics, toys, polystyrene, wrapping paper or fairy lights.
• Red bin or box: plain wrapping paper and plain cards without glitter, foil or bows, cardboard delivery boxes, card gift boxes and emptied plain crackers. Not glittered or foiled paper, ribbons or sticky tape.
• Food caddy: all leftover food.

Still to be confirmed

The council will publish the revised 2026/27 dates on its Christmas recycling page, on past form in mid-December. We will update this page the day it does. See also Christmas and New Year trains from Canterbury and parking in Canterbury.

Sources: Canterbury City Council Christmas recycling campaign page (checked 25 September 2026, last modified by the council on 15 December 2025), garden waste FAQ, bank holiday bin collection changes page; GOV.UK bank holidays.