Bromley Christmas Bin Collections: A Day Late Into January

Bromley has not published its Christmas 2026 bin dates yet. Last Christmas it did not cancel a single collection. Instead, every round from Christmas Day onwards ran one day late, and the knock-on lasted more than a fortnight, until Saturday 10 January. Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, and the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December, so the shift will fall on different days from last year.

The quick answer

• 2026 dates: not yet published. Last year’s table was on the council’s site by 16 December 2025, when the web archive captured it.
• Christmas 2025: every collection from 25 December moved one day later, through to Friday 9 January, whose round was collected on Saturday 10 January.
• Real Christmas trees went to five free drop-off sites on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 January 2026.

What happened at Christmas 2025

The London Borough of Bromley’s bank holiday collections page carried this table last winter. We have taken it from the copy archived on 16 December 2025, because the live page now shows the August bank holiday instead.

The council’s page said collections returned to normal in the week commencing 12 January 2026.

Two things caught people out. New Year’s Day was not a collection day, so Wednesday 31 December’s round jumped to Friday 2 January. And the one-day slip carried on into the second week of January, long after the bank holidays had passed.

The year before was the same pattern

Christmas 2024 worked the same way. Wednesday 25 December moved to Friday 27 December, and each later round slipped by a day until Friday 10 January went out on Saturday 11 January. Normal collections resumed in the week of 13 January 2025, according to the archived 2024/25 version of the same page.

In both years, a bank holiday pushed that day’s round back, and every later round moved with it until a Saturday absorbed the slip. The council has not said how it will handle Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December and Friday 1 January 2027, and we will not guess. The bank holiday dates themselves are fixed on GOV.UK.

How to check your own day

The council’s collection day checker tells you your weekday and whether you are on a black box week or a green box week. The printable waste collection calendars show the week pattern. Our bin collection days page explains what goes in each container.

Containers still need to be out by 7am on the revised day.

Christmas trees

The council runs a free real-tree drop-off on one weekend in January. Its Christmas tree recycling page currently lists last season’s sites and times.

Saturday 10 January, 11am to 4pm - Bromley: Norman Park, Hook Farm Road (off Bromley Common) - Green Street Green: Salt Depot, Shire Lane Spur (off Sevenoaks Road) - St Paul’s Cray: Cotmandene Crescent car park

Sunday 11 January, 8am to midday - Biggin Hill: Charles Darwin School, Jail Lane - Beckenham: Unicorn Primary School car park, Creswell Drive (off South Eden Park Road)

Take every decoration off first. A tree left at a site outside those hours counts as fly-tipping.

There are two other routes. Garden waste subscribers can put the tree in their green wheelie bin, cut down if needed. Anyone can take it to the Churchfields Road tip in Beckenham with a booking. Opening hours and the Christmas closures are on our tip opening times page.

Still to be confirmed

• Christmas 2026 revised collection dates. Expected on the council’s bank holiday page in early December. We will add the full table here.
• January 2027 tree drop-off dates. The page above still shows the January 2026 weekend. We will update it when the council does.

Sources

• Bank holiday waste and recycling collections, London Borough of Bromley, with archived versions from 16 December 2025 and 19 January 2025
• Christmas tree recycling sites, London Borough of Bromley
• Churchfields Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, London Borough of Bromley
• UK bank holidays, GOV.UK