Stafford Bin Days: Christmas Rounds Move Early, Not Late

Stafford Borough Council will not tell you your bin day without a postcode, and it does not print the Christmas dates in words anywhere on its website. They are on the round calendar it gives you, and they run against what most people expect.

Every bank holiday this year has pushed collections a day later. Christmas does the opposite. In the week of 21 December, every round in the borough is collected a day earlier than usual, and Monday households go out on Saturday 19 December. The following week then slips later again.

Here is the whole service in one place, with the dates, the prices and the traps.

Which bin, which week

The borough runs an alternate weekly service, set out on the council’s Know Your Bins page.

• Green bin: general rubbish. Plastic bags, crisp packets, sweet wrappers, nappies and wrapped pet waste. Collected one week.
• Blue bin: glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, food tins, drink cans, foil and aerosols. Collected the alternate week. No black plastic, no plant pots.
• Blue bag: paper and card. Goes out beside the blue bin, never inside it.
• Brown bin: garden waste, on the same day as the blue bin. Paid, see below.
• Grey caddy: food waste, collected every week whichever bin is due.

Leave recycling loose in the blue bin. Carrier bags and bin liners get it rejected.

The food waste service started in April 2026 and is free. The caddy is emptied on your usual day but by a different vehicle, so an empty bin and a full caddy at lunchtime is normal. Flats with communal bin stores were added from July 2026.

The council also runs a free weekly textile collection that almost nobody uses, because it is on a page of its own. Put clothes, paired shoes, hats, belts and handbags in a tied carrier bag and stand it next to the bins, not on top. Nothing wet, dirty or oily, and no duvets, bedding, pillows, carpets or curtains. Full rules are on the council’s textile and clothing collection page.

Finding your day

Use the council’s About My Area lookup. Enter your postcode, pick your address, and it returns your round calendar as a PDF.

There are ten rounds, two for each weekday from Monday to Friday. The two that share a weekday are on opposite weeks. So your neighbour two streets away can have the same collection day and a different bin. Check your own address.

Everything must be out by 7am, at the boundary of your property, with the lid shut.

The Christmas and New Year dates

Every round calendar for 2026 carries the changes to the end of the year. We downloaded all ten and read them off. The dates are identical across all ten rounds, so this table applies to the whole borough.

Monday rounds then move once more, to Tuesday 5 January, because the Friday round has taken Monday 4 January. That is the last date the 2026 calendar shows.

Two things are worth flagging.

• If your day is Monday, your Christmas collection is a Saturday, two days early. Put the bin out on 18 December and it will sit there all weekend.
• If your day is Friday, your New Year collection is Monday 4 January, three days late. That is the longest gap of the year.

Nothing is cancelled. Every round is collected, just on a different date.

Bank holidays the rest of the year

The rule for every other bank holiday is simple: the whole week moves one day later, and Friday rounds land on Saturday. That is what happened at the August bank holiday, when Monday rounds went to Tuesday 1 September and Friday rounds to Saturday 5 September.

One exception is worth knowing for next spring. The calendars show collections running normally on Good Friday, 3 April 2026. It was Easter Monday that shifted the week, so Friday rounds moved on 10 April instead, to Saturday 11 April.

Garden waste: £43.50, and no refunds

The brown bin is a paid subscription. The 2026 permit costs £43.50 per bin. A second or replacement garden bin is £28.50 to deliver, per the council’s Fees and Charges 2026/27.

The trap is the year it covers. The permit runs 1 January to 31 December, not twelve months from when you buy it. Sign up in October and you pay the full £43.50 for eleven weeks. The council states plainly that there are “no pro rata discounts or refunds given”.

Garden waste takes leaves, small branches, twigs, bark, grass, cut flowers, plants, weeds and hedge clippings. It does not take soil, turf, rubble, stones, or anything labelled biodegradable or compostable. Collections are fortnightly, on your blue bin day.

Bulky waste: £58.25 for three items

A special collection costs £58.25. The council’s special collections page puts that at up to three items. Its fees schedule adds an alternative that the web page leaves out: the same £58.25 covers either three bulky items or six sacks of household waste, with additional items charged pro rata.

Booking is by phone on 01785 619402 only. Collections run on Mondays or Wednesdays. Four rules catch people out:

• Crews will not enter a property, garage, shed or back garden. Items go at the front, or at your normal bin point.
• Items must be out by 7am. If they are not, there is no refund and no rescheduling.
• If someone else takes the items before the crew arrives, there is no refund.
• A carpet must be liftable by two people, or cut up, rolled and tied. Underlay does not count as carpet.

Asbestos, building waste, fitted units, sheds, pianos, gas bottles, paint and oil are all refused.

When a bin is not emptied

There are two different situations and the council treats them differently.

Wrong items in the bin. A hanger goes on the bin explaining why. It will not be emptied until the next scheduled collection day, and only then if the wrong items have been taken out. There is no return visit.

A genuine miss. Report it on 01785 619402 or through the council’s online form. The council’s waste FAQ and its “what do I do if” page both stop short of naming a deadline for reporting a missed collection. If yours is missed, report it the same day rather than assume you have a window.

Side waste left beside a bin is never collected.

A replacement bin is charged unless the crew broke it. From the fees schedule:

The two tips

Both are run by Staffordshire County Council, not the borough. Neither needs a booking, and cars can visit as often as they like.

Stafford, St Albans Road, ST16 3DR. Open every day. 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm at weekends, on the summer timetable running to 24 October 2026.

Stone, Beacon Road, Stone Business Park, ST15 0NN. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open Wednesday to Friday 9am to 6pm, and 9am to 5pm at weekends.

A van, pick-up or trailer over 1.5 metres needs a permit, which allows 12 visits a year.

Three restrictions were live on the county’s recycling centre notices page when we checked it on 1 September, the day it was last updated:

• wood cannot currently be accepted anywhere on the network, because of a nationwide issue
• fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers are only being taken at Cannock, Stafford and Leek
• trade waste is not accepted at any centre, on capacity grounds

Stone is the one to watch. It is shut every Monday and Tuesday, so a Monday bank holiday means the tip is closed on the holiday itself and again the day after, when most people try to go.

Where it all ends up

The council publishes this on its Where Does it Go page, and it answers the question people actually ask about whether recycling is really recycled.

• Blue bin: sorted at a materials recovery facility at Four Ashes, near Cannock. Reprocessed in the UK, apart from aluminium, which goes to Germany.
• Blue bag: UK paper mills.
• Green bin: energy recovery facilities at Stoke and Four Ashes, burned to generate electricity.
• Brown bin: an open composting facility near Stone, turned in rows over about three months. That is why compostable packaging is banned.
• Food caddy: anaerobic digestion at Cannock, from 13 April 2026, producing biogas and bio-fertiliser.

More local information

Our roadworks and travel page tracks closures across the borough, including the routes to both tips. We also cover council tax bands, parking in Stafford, planning news and house prices.

Sources

• Recycling and Waste, Know Your Bins and Frequently Asked Questions, Stafford Borough Council, checked 1 September 2026, for the bin colours, the alternate weekly system, the 7am rule, side waste and container replacement charges.
• Round calendars Calendar-2026-01 to Calendar-2026-10, published by Stafford Borough Council at staffordbc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/bincalendar/, downloaded and read on 1 September 2026. All ten give the same Christmas and New Year dates, and show collections running on Good Friday 3 April 2026.
• About My Area, Stafford Borough Council’s address lookup, for the round calendar per property.
• Brown Bin, Stafford Borough Council, for the £43.50 permit, the January to December year and the no-refunds rule.
• Special Collections for Large Items, Stafford Borough Council, for £58.25, Monday and Wednesday collections, the 7am rule and the refusals list.
• Fees and Charges 2026/2027, Stafford Borough Council, Environment Portfolio pages 22 and 31 to 34, for £58.25 covering three bulky items or six sacks, the £28.50 additional garden bin, and the £48.00, £12.00 and no-charge bin replacements.
• What do I do if, Stafford Borough Council, for contaminated bins, information hangers and reporting a missed collection.
• Food Waste and Textile and Clothing Collection, Stafford Borough Council.
• Where Does it Go, Stafford Borough Council, for the processing sites.
• Stafford Recycling Centre, Stone Recycling Centre and Recycling Centre notices, Staffordshire County Council, hours for 29 March to 24 October 2026, notices page last updated 1 September 2026.