Brentwood's 2026 Christmas bin dates are not out yet. Last year Wednesday to Friday rounds slipped two days, Saturday never moved, normal from 13 January.
Brentwood Borough Council has not published its Christmas and New Year collection dates for 2026/27 yet. Its current printable route calendars run from April 2026 to November 2026, so the festive ones are still to come.
What the council has already said is that bank holidays never move your bin day in Brentwood, apart from around Christmas and New Year (Brentwood Borough Council, Collection day).
The quick answer
- The 2026/27 Christmas dates are not published. Last year’s calendars went up on the council’s site on 4 December 2024.
- Last year, Saturday rounds never moved, Monday and Tuesday rounds kept their day in Christmas week, and Wednesday to Friday rounds slipped two or three days.
- Everything was back to normal from Monday 13 January 2025. Expect a similar three-week shift this year.
Why this Christmas is awkward
The bank holidays land badly for a Monday to Saturday round in 2026. Christmas Day is Friday 25 December. Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, so the bank holiday moves to a substitute day, Monday 28 December. New Year’s Day is Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK, UK bank holidays).
That is three weekday bank holidays in eight days, one of them a Monday. Brentwood’s Monday rounds kept their day in both Christmas weeks last year, which will not be possible on 28 December. Treat any day in that fortnight as provisional until the council’s calendar is out.
What happened last Christmas, round by round
The council’s printable route calendars for December 2024 to March 2025 show every change. We read the weekday and Saturday calendars from the web archive’s copies (the council’s Collection day page, archived January 2025; for example, the Wednesday Route 3 calendar). The page itself said it was last updated on 4 December 2024. These are last year’s dates, not this year’s.
| Normal collection day | Collected instead on |
|---|---|
| Monday 23 December | No change |
| Tuesday 24 December | No change |
| Wednesday 25 December | Friday 27 December |
| Thursday 26 December | Saturday 28 December |
| Friday 27 December | Monday 30 December |
| Saturday 28 December | No change |
| Monday 30 December | Tuesday 31 December |
| Tuesday 31 December | Thursday 2 January |
| Wednesday 1 January | Friday 3 January |
| Thursday 2 January | Saturday 4 January |
| Friday 3 January | Monday 6 January |
| Saturday 4 January | No change |
| Monday 6 January | Tuesday 7 January |
| Tuesday 7 January | Wednesday 8 January |
| Wednesday 8 January | Thursday 9 January |
| Thursday 9 January | Friday 10 January |
| Friday 10 January | Saturday 11 January |
Two details on those calendars are worth knowing. The first blue-sack week in January was marked “no garden waste”, so the brown bin missed one collection. And the Saturday rounds, which cover routes 2A and 2B, ran on their usual Saturdays throughout.
The year before that was simpler
When Christmas Day fell on a Sunday in 2022, the council moved every collection one day later for the week from Monday 26 December, and all rounds were back to normal from Monday 2 January 2023. That notice also said real Christmas trees could go out with your normal garden waste (Brentwood Borough Council, 19 December 2022, archived).
The lesson from the two years is that the shape depends on where the bank holidays fall. 2026 looks more like 2024 than 2022, with the added Monday.
How to check your own day
- Put your postcode into the council’s collection day map. It shows your weekday and route number.
- The printable calendar for your route is on the Collection day page. The council warns that a saved link to an old PDF goes out of date, so open it from that page.
- The council’s free SMS text reminders include notices of changed collection days.
- Everything goes out on the kerb by 7.30am on the collection day.
For which sack takes what, and the garden waste subscription, see our Brentwood bin collection days page. For anything that will not fit in a sack after Christmas, the two Essex recycling centres at Coxtie Green and Mountnessing close early on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve: times on our Brentwood tip opening times page.
Still to be confirmed
The 2026/27 festive calendars, including whether Monday rounds move for the 28 December substitute bank holiday. On last year’s timing they should appear in the first week of December. This page will be updated with the full table when they do.
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