Bank holidays push every Northumberland collection a day later. Glass and food waste are not taken from the kerb, garden waste is £59, three tips shut midweek.

Northumberland does bin week differently from most of England, in two ways that catch people out.

Bank holidays move you. Northumberland County Council pushes every affected round one day later, which is the opposite of the councils that collect straight through. For the Monday 31 August 2026 bank holiday the council published the shift in a service alert: Monday became Tuesday, Tuesday became Wednesday, Wednesday became Thursday and Thursday became Friday.

There are only two bins. No food waste caddy, no glass in the recycling, no kerbside collection of yoghurt pots, food trays, cartons or plastic bags. All of that goes in the general waste bin or to the tip. That is legal until the government’s Simpler Recycling rules bite, and Northumberland has already said it will miss the deadline. The dates are below.

Everything here was checked against Northumberland County Council on 31 August 2026.

The two bins, and the things that surprise people

Bin What goes in How often
Recycling bin Clean paper, card and flattened cardboard, envelopes including window ones, plain gift wrap, junk mail, rinsed food and drink tins, empty aerosols, plastic bottles with or without lids Fortnightly
General waste bin Everything the recycling bin will not take Fortnightly, alternate week

The council’s own bin guide puts a longer list than most people expect in the general waste bin:

  • glass bottles and jars
  • food waste
  • Tetra Paks and other drinks cartons
  • any plastic that is not a bottle, so carrier bags, cling film, plant pots, yoghurt pots, food trays, margarine cartons and bubble wrap
  • shredded paper, tissues and paper towels
  • tin foil and foil trays
  • polystyrene, nappies, single-use coffee cups and gloss photo paper
  • birthday and Christmas wrap containing glitter

Glass and cartons can go to a tip instead. There is no third option at the kerb.

Two rules the crews enforce. Recycling must be clean, dry and loose, and excess recycling cannot go out in black bags. Bins must be at the kerbside by 7am, and a bin that is not out when the lorry arrives waits two weeks.

Find your own day

The council’s bin collection checker takes a postcode, then an address, and returns your next dates plus a printable calendar. It is the only reliable answer for a specific house.

It also shows the bank holiday shift in practice. On 31 August 2026 the checker gave a St Georges Square address in Morpeth a recycling collection on Wednesday 2 September, then general waste on Tuesday 8 September and every collection after that on a Tuesday. One week moved, the rest did not.

Christmas and new year dates for 2026 are not yet in the checker. When they appear they will be on the same page, and any change will also be posted on the council’s alerts page.

What is changing, and when

The government’s Simpler Recycling rules required councils in England to collect a wider range of materials from April 2026 and to run a separate weekly food waste collection. Northumberland says on its Simpler Recycling page that it will not meet that date, blaming government funding, national delays in refuse vehicle supply and the need to rebuild its own processing facilities. Cabinet approved more than £21 million in November 2025 to pay for the work.

What is coming:

  • Weekly food waste from autumn 2026, phased. Around 90,000 households go first: southeast Northumberland, meaning the former Blyth Valley and Wansbeck district areas, plus Morpeth, Pegswood and Ponteland. Each gets a 23-litre bin with an orange lid, a 5-litre kitchen caddy and a roll of 52 liners.
  • The rest of the county waits. Further food waste rollout depends on the council securing more funding in 2027/28.
  • A second recycling bin in early 2027. A new 240-litre bin with a black body and burgundy lid takes paper, card and cardboard. The existing recycling bin is repurposed for tins, cans, all plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, foil, aerosols, glass bottles and jars and cartons.
  • Flexible plastics such as bags and wrapping from March 2027.

The collection pattern changes with it. General waste stays fortnightly, but each recycling bin is emptied only once every four weeks, alternating.

Garden waste: £59, and no refund for signing up late

Garden waste is a paid subscription. The 2026 terms and conditions set out what you are buying:

  • £59 per bin for the 2026 season, and £59 for each extra bin
  • a maximum of 20 collections, fortnightly, running March to November
  • the service is suspended from December to February
  • you can join at any point in the year, but the price does not drop and there are no refunds, so a late subscriber pays the same £59 for fewer collections
  • not every property is eligible, and the council checks by postcode before taking payment
  • the bin must be on an adopted or planned adopted highway and reachable by the lorry

Wrong material in the bin means it is not emptied, with no refund. The council will not take soil, rubble, food waste, ragwort or compostable bags.

Bulky waste: £45 for up to three items

Number of items Cost
Up to 3 £45
4 to 6 £90

Residents receiving housing benefit or council tax support get 25% off, though not those with only the single person discount, and the discount has to be claimed by phone on 0345 600 6400 rather than online. Collections happen between 7am and 5pm on the chosen day and you cannot add items to an existing booking. Full item list and booking on the council’s bulky waste page.

Baths, boilers, sheds, greenhouses, kitchen units, plasterboard, rubble and soil are not on the standard list and need a phone call, with no guarantee they will be taken.

Missed collection, and the tag system

Before reporting a missed bin, the council wants three things to be true: the bin was out by 7am, no disruption was advertised on the alerts page, and there is no tag on the bin.

  • A red tag means contamination. The crew found food, liquids, nappies, pet waste, plastic bags or wet cardboard in the recycling and left it. Remove the wrong items and the tag, and put it out on the next collection day. The council also sends a letter.
  • A white tag means the bin was too heavy, damaged, or the crew could not get to it.

Either way the bin waits until the next scheduled day, two weeks on. Report a genuine miss through the council’s missed collection form.

Damaged bins are repaired free. Replacements are not:

Bin size Cost
140 litres £44
240 litres (standard) £49.50
340 litres £79
660 litres £119
1,100 litres £403

The seven tips, and the three that shut midweek

Site Address Days open
Alnwick Plot B, Lionheart Enterprise Park, NE66 2HT 7 days
Berwick Windmill Way East, North Road Industrial Estate, TD15 1UN 7 days
Blyth (Bebside) Front Street, NE24 4HN 7 days
Hexham French Garden Industrial Estate, NE46 4JU 7 days
Haltwhistle Townfoot, NE49 0DS Friday to Monday
Morpeth Whorral Bank, NE61 3BN Friday to Monday
Prudhoe Broomhouse Road, NE42 5ED Friday to Monday

All seven open at 8am and close at 7.30pm from 1 April to 31 October and 6pm from 1 November to 31 March. Morpeth is the county town and its tip is shut on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which is worth knowing before driving there midweek.

Note also that the council’s locations page lists only six sites and leaves Prudhoe out, while its what you can take page refers to sites at Kirkley West Thorne and North Seaton that have no page at all. Prudhoe’s own page is live and gives the hours above.

The rules that get people turned away:

  • No pedestrian access at any site, under any circumstances.
  • You must live in Northumberland, and ID is checked.
  • No trade waste, and no arriving in a wheelie bin.
  • Children under 16 and pets stay in the car.
  • Tyres are capped at five per resident per year.
  • Compost is sold at £5 per 40-litre bag.
  • Fridges and freezers may be refused. The council says all seven sites currently have storage capacity problems, because the specialist plants that strip out refrigerant gases are short. Phone 0345 600 6400 before setting off with one.
  • The book and media reuse banks have gone, after the council’s collection partner left the market.

When you need a permit

Two free permits exist, both booked at least 24 hours ahead through the council’s permit page.

  • A DIY permit covers rubble, soil, plasterboard, tiles, slates, bricks, concrete, sand, toilets, sinks, window panes and similar. You get four per household in any four-week period, each good for 100 litres, roughly two builders’ rubble sacks or six buckets.
  • A large vehicle permit covers anything up to 3.5 tonnes, single cab pick-ups, and trailers over 5ft. Twelve a year, no carry-over, maximum three in any seven days, and a no-show still costs you one.

Carrying DIY waste in a van means booking both, and the DIY one has to be booked as a domestic car. Anything over 3.5 tonnes, any tipper or box van, any trailer over 9ft 10in, anything on more than four wheels, tractors and horseboxes are all refused entry.