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Rubbish & Recycling

Wokingham Borough Connect

Festive bin collection changes

Christmas is just around the corner, which means there're going to be some changes to your bin collections.

Your bin collection days will be adjusted temporarily from Wednesday 25 December (Christmas Day) until normal collections resume on Monday 13 January. Please note:

• All collections will run as normal up to and including Tuesday 24 December

• There will be no collection on Christmas Day (Wednesday 25 December), Boxing Day (Thursday 26 December) and New Year's Day (Wednesday 1 January)

• Our crews will work on Saturdays during this period (28 December, 4 January and 11 January) to catch up. They will start earlier at 5.30am, so be sure to put out your waste the night before to avoid being missed

• Garden waste collections will follow the same revised schedule

Revised collection schedule

23 to 27 December

30 December to 3 January

6 to 10 January

Get ready for the festive season

As we approach our first holiday season with the new collections, here are some tips to help you stay on top of handling your waste:

Rubbish and recycling are collected every other week: to find out what waste to put out, use the find your bin collection day tool on our website or download the free Scrapp app, provided by our partner re3, to get bin reminders on your mobile

Food waste is collected weekly: ensure you have a kitchen caddy and a food waste bin. If you don't have one, get them for free from our collection hubs.

Recycling food waste helps the environment and keeps unpleasant smells out of your rubbish bin, especially when there will be an increase in cooking during the festive period. 

Get an extra green bag: At this time of year, around 30 per cent more waste is generated, and most of this can be recycled. Check if you have enough green bags and pick up an extra one from our collection hubs, if needed. 

Don't forget to squash things like plastic bottles, drinks cans and cardboard packaging to save space in your green bags.

Top tips on glass recycling

We're likely to cook more than normal over the festive period, and will have empty wine and drink bottles, glass jars for sauces and pickles or so on in our kitchens.

Glass can be endlessly recycled to turn into new products without losing its quality.

It has many environmental benefits as well. For each tonne of glass recycled, about 580kg of carbon emissions is saved throughout the supply chain and air pollution is reduced by 20 per cent and water pollution cut by 50 per cent.

Here are some top tips on glass recycling:

• Empty and quickly rinse them, so they are free from food
• Put lids or caps back on, so they don't get lost during the sorting process as they can be recycled separately 
• Remove corks, as they can be home composted
• No need to remove labels
• Don't leave empties on the floor beside the bottle banks, as they may not be picked up and recycled

...how about fragrance bottles?

You can recycle empty glass fragrance bottles along with food jars and drinking bottles. Remember to leave the lids on.

Please note some glass items can't be recycled, including glass cookware like Pyrex, microwave plates, drinking glasses, vases, mirrors, light bulbs and tubes. 

If you need to dispose of any broken glassware, wrap it in unwanted paper or cloth before placing it in the bin.

Recycling centres holiday season hours

Re3 recycling centres in Reading and Bracknell will be closed from 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Also, the two centres will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.