Stevenage council posted last Christmas's bin dates on 1 December and ran Christmas week EARLY, not late. The 2025 table, 2026 bank holidays and what to expect.
Stevenage Borough Council has not published its Christmas and New Year 2026 collection dates. We checked its news pages, its waste pages and its residents’ magazine on 24 September 2026. Last year the dates went up on 1 December, so that is the week to expect them.
What last year’s table shows is worth knowing now, because it breaks the council’s own rule. Stevenage normally collects one day late after a bank holiday. In Christmas week 2025 it collected early: Monday’s bins went out on the Saturday before.
The quick answer
No 2026 Christmas dates exist yet. The council posted its 2025 table on 1 December 2025, so expect this year’s in the first week of December. In 2025, Christmas week collections ran one or two days early (Monday 22 December was collected on Saturday 20 December), Boxing Day’s round moved to the Saturday, and the New Year week ran one day late. Up to two extra sacks of rubbish were taken with the first black bin collection after Christmas. This page will be updated the day the 2026 table appears.
The 2025 table, as the council published it
This is what Stevenage Borough Council published for Christmas 2025 and New Year 2026. It is last year’s schedule, and it is here as a guide to the shape of the thing, not as this year’s dates.
| Normal collection day | Revised collection day | Shift |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 22 December | Saturday 20 December | Two days early |
| Tuesday 23 December | Monday 22 December | One day early |
| Wednesday 24 December | Tuesday 23 December | One day early |
| Thursday 25 December | Wednesday 24 December | One day early |
| Friday 26 December | Saturday 27 December | One day late |
| Monday 29 to Wednesday 31 December | Normal days | No change |
| Thursday 1 January | Friday 2 January | One day late |
| Friday 2 January | Saturday 3 January | One day late |
Normal collections resumed on Monday 5 January 2026. The table was printed on page 12 of the council’s Winter 2025 Chronicle magazine (Stevenage Borough Council, Chronicle Winter 2025) and posted as a news item, “Christmas Waste and Recycling Collection Dates”, on 1 December 2025. That news page has since been taken down; an archived copy is on the Wayback Machine.
The early shift matters because it is the opposite of what the council’s policy says. The Household Waste Management Policy, paragraph 2.7.1, says collections after a bank holiday “will in the main be made one day later than normal utilising Saturday’s for collections normally undertaken on a Friday”. That is how every other bank holiday works, and it is what our bin collection days page sets out. At Christmas 2025 the council did the reverse in Christmas week so that Christmas Day’s round was done before the holiday rather than after it. Whether it does the same in 2026 is exactly what the December announcement will tell you.
Why 2026 is an awkward year
The official bank holiday list for England and Wales (GOV.UK) gives three dates:
- Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026
- Boxing Day substitute, Monday 28 December 2026 (Boxing Day itself is a Saturday)
- New Year’s Day, Friday 1 January 2027
Two of the three land on a Friday. Under the standing rule, a Friday round moves to Saturday. Christmas Day’s Friday round would move to Boxing Day, which is not a working day, and New Year’s Day’s Friday round would move to Saturday 2 January. The Monday 28 December substitute holiday then pushes that whole week a day later as well. The 2025 approach, which cleared Christmas week early, would avoid the Boxing Day problem. There is no way to know which the council will choose until it publishes.
What stayed the same in 2025, and probably will again
The 2025 announcement carried four rules alongside the table. All four are the kind of standing arrangement that tends to repeat, but treat them as last year’s until the council confirms them.
- Extra rubbish. Up to two additional sacks of household waste were collected with the first black bin collection after 25 December. Extra recycling could go out beside the recycling in a suitable box or container, not in black sacks, and the council asked people not to leave cardboard out in the rain because wet cardboard is not recyclable.
- Real Christmas trees. Trees went in the brown bin or beside it on collection day up to the end of January, with all decorations removed. Since the weekly food waste collection began on 2 March 2026 the council says the brown bin is “for garden waste only” (Stevenage Borough Council, food waste collection), so check the 2026 wording on trees when it appears.
- Cards and wrapping paper. Plain cards and paper went in the blue box. Anything with glitter or foil went in the refuse bin.
- The tip. Extra waste and recycling could be taken to the Caxton Way recycling centre, which is closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day and needs an ePass to get in. Hours and rules are on our tip opening times page.
Bins, boxes and the food caddy go out by 7am on the collection day, or the night before. That rule did not change for Christmas.
How to check your own street
The council no longer prints an annual collection calendar. The address lookup gives your next collection date and a downloadable calendar, and the council said in 2025 that changes over Christmas would also be signposted on social media, yellow road signs and bin hangers. When the 2026 table is published it will appear on the council’s news page and in the Winter 2026 Chronicle.
Still to be confirmed
- The 2026 Christmas week and New Year week dates, expected in the first week of December 2026.
- Whether Christmas week runs early again, or follows the one-day-late rule.
- The 2026 rule for real trees now that the brown bin no longer takes food waste.
- Whether the two extra sacks allowance continues.
Council tax bills, parking and the rest of the festive practicalities are on our council tax bands and parking in Stevenage pages.
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