Elmbridge collections are running late, with 3 to 4 more weeks expected. The bank holiday is unaffected, and here are the 2026 garden and bulky waste prices.
Elmbridge Borough Council collects the bins in Esher, Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames, Cobham, the Moleseys, the Dittons, Hersham, Claygate and Oxshott. The rounds themselves are run by Amey through Joint Waste Solutions, a partnership the borough shares with Mole Valley, Surrey Heath and Woking.
The council’s own bin page asks for your postcode and gives you one date. This page covers the things that date does not: what is going wrong right now, what happens at bank holidays and Christmas, what the garden and bulky services cost this year, and where you can take the rest.
Collections are running late across the borough
The council says it expects the disruption to continue for another three to four weeks. That is from its waste service update, which is currently the first thing on the bins section of its website.
The council blames a combination of things:
- crews having to drive much further, three days a week, to reach somewhere that will take and process the waste
- recycling facility closures and capacity pressures across the sector
- vehicle availability
- extreme heat
- staffing
Food waste, rubbish and recycling are being prioritised. Garden waste is the service running furthest behind.
Joint Waste Solutions posts a dated list of the rounds that did not finish. As of its update at 3.45pm on Tuesday 25 August, the outstanding collections were:
- recycling from Tuesday 25 August at Bedster Gardens, West Molesey
- rubbish from Tuesday 25 August in parts of Esher and Thames Ditton
- garden waste from Wednesday 19 August in parts of Claygate
- garden waste from Thursday 20 August in parts of Hersham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Whiteley Village
- garden waste from Friday 21 August in parts of Cobham, Esher, Oxshott and Stoke D’Abernon
- garden waste from Monday 24 August in parts of Shepperton, Walton and Weybridge
- garden waste from Tuesday 25 August in parts of East Molesey, Esher, Long Ditton and Thames Ditton
That list is republished most working days on the Elmbridge service updates page, with a spreadsheet naming the individual roads. It is worth checking before you report anything.
Two practical points while this lasts. Leave your bin out, including over the weekend, because crews return when they can. And if you are waiting for a garden waste collection, the council has asked people not to report it as missed, because it already knows.
Bulky waste is still running, but the council has temporarily cut the number of bookable slots to free up crews. New and replacement bin deliveries are also behind: Joint Waste Solutions said on 25 August it was still working through orders placed in the week beginning 17 July.
The August bank holiday: nothing moves
There is no change to Elmbridge bin collections over the bank holiday weekend. Joint Waste Solutions confirmed that on Wednesday 19 August, for Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Surrey Heath and Woking. Put your bins out on your normal day.
This is the usual pattern here. Elmbridge does not shift its rounds for the spring or late summer bank holidays, and the printed 2026 collection calendar marks no bank holiday changes at all. Christmas is the exception.
Christmas: the dates move, and the council has not published this year’s yet
Over the festive period Elmbridge does move collections, and it moves them later, not earlier. In the last festive period a Thursday round went to the Saturday, and every day for the following fortnight shifted on by one, with Friday rounds ending up on a Saturday.
The council’s Christmas bin collection page is still showing that schedule, which covered 25 December 2025 to 10 January 2026. The dates for Christmas 2026 have not been published yet. Do not plan around the ones currently on the page.
Two things on that page do still apply. Garden waste subscribers can put a real Christmas tree in the brown-lidded bin, provided it is stripped of decorations, cut up, and the lid closes. And if bad weather disrupts collections, the council asks you to leave the bin out rather than report it.
Which bin, and how often
Elmbridge is part way through replacing its bins, so two colour schemes are in use at once. The lid colour is the reliable guide, not the body.
- Blue lid: recycling. Collected every two weeks. Paper, card, tins, cans, foil, plastic bottles, trays, pots and tubs, glass bottles and jars, empty aerosols, cartons, clean non-black plant pots. Not plastic bags, black bin liners, tissues, wipes, greasy pizza boxes or coffee cups.
- Green outdoor bin: food waste. Collected every week, on the same day as your rubbish or recycling, by a separate vehicle. A silver kitchen caddy goes with it. Bread and salad bags can go in; other packaging and liquids cannot.
- Black or green lid: rubbish. Collected every two weeks, on the weeks your recycling is not.
- Brown lid: garden waste. Subscription only, collected every two weeks in the same week as the rubbish bin.
- A small carrier bag: textiles, small electricals or batteries. Most households get this collected weekly alongside the usual round. One bag, one type of item, not mixed.
Everything must be at the edge of your property by 6:30am, and the lid must close. Crews will not empty a bin that is too heavy to tip, and they will not take recycling presented in black bags.
To find your own day and download your calendar, use the council’s bin collection day lookup. There is no borough-wide day: rounds run Monday to Friday and vary street by street.
Missed collection: you have two working days
Report it through the council’s missed bin collection form. The window is narrow at both ends:
- do not report before 4pm on your collection day
- you have until 11:59pm on the second working day after it
So a Monday round can be reported until Wednesday night, and a Friday round until the following Tuesday night. If the form shows the message “incomplete round”, the crew is already coming back the next working day and you do not need to do anything. If nothing has been collected by the end of that next working day, the number is 01372 474474.
Garden waste is the exception at the moment: the council has asked people not to report those, because the delays are known. It also will not send a crew back if your garden waste subscription was not active on the day.
Garden waste: £74.50 a bin for the year
The garden waste service is an annual subscription running 1 April to 31 March. The current prices are:
| Joining | One bin | Two bins | Three bins |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 April to 30 September 2026 | £74.50 | £149 | £223.50 |
| 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027 | £37.25 | £74.50 | £111.75 |
Join after 1 October and you pay half, because the subscription still ends on 31 March. You can sign up for this year’s service until 31 March 2027. Households on Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support get 50% off, and need their account or reference number to claim it. American Express is not accepted.
Two things worth knowing before you pay. New subscribers can wait up to 14 days to be added to a round, and a collection missed inside that window cannot be reported. And the service takes branches only up to 7cm thick.
Bulky waste: £35.20 for one item, £11 for each extra
Bulky collections are charged per booking, not per visit, and the marginal cost is flat:
| Items | Charge | Concession |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | £35.20 | £17.60 |
| 2 | £46.20 | £23.10 |
| 3 | £57.20 | £28.60 |
| 5 | £79.20 | £39.60 |
| 10 | £134.20 | £67.10 |
Every item after the first adds £11. The concessionary rate is half price and applies if you receive Council Tax Support or Housing Benefit; the council says it will cancel a request and may refer it to its fraud team if you claim the rate without qualifying.
Payment is taken before collection, online or by phone, and never in cash. Items must be visible at the front of the property by 6:30am. There is no refund if you cancel within 24 hours. Commercial properties cannot use the service.
It is free to take the same items to a recycling centre yourself, which is where this gets awkward.
The tip: there isn’t one in Elmbridge
Elmbridge has no community recycling centre of its own. Surrey County Council runs the sites, and the three nearest all sit in a neighbouring district.
| Centre | Address | Open |
|---|---|---|
| Shepperton | Charlton Lane, Shepperton TW17 8QA | Mon to Fri 8am to 4pm, Sat and Sun 9am to 4pm |
| Leatherhead | Randalls Road, Leatherhead KT22 | Mon to Fri 8am to 4pm, Sat and Sun 9am to 4pm |
| Epsom | Blenheim Road, Epsom KT19 9DL | Mon, Thu, Fri 8am to 4pm, Sat and Sun 9am to 4pm |
Epsom is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Shepperton and Leatherhead are open seven days.
There is no booking system, but there are conditions:
- you need proof of address on your first visit, such as a driving licence, this year’s council tax bill, a recent utility bill or a Surrey bus pass. Staff then give you a resident sticker for the windscreen.
- a van, pickup, camper van or anything towing a trailer needs a permit. It costs £10 a year, allows a maximum of 12 visits, and only one is issued per household.
- pedestrians cannot use Shepperton. Surrey only allows walk-in access at Caterham, Camberley, Warlingham and Woking.
- children below year 7 and all pets must stay in the vehicle.
- tyres are charged at Shepperton, at £5 each including VAT. Bicycle tyres and inner tubes are free.
On bank holidays the sites keep their usual hours. They close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and shut at 2pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Cartons: two bring banks, both in car parks
Food and drink cartons cannot go in the blue-lidded bin. Elmbridge has two bring banks for them:
- Mayfield Road car park, Hersham, by Walton-on-Thames station
- The Heath South car park, Weybridge
They take juice and milk cartons, paper and coffee cups, and soup and food cartons. Wash, squash and cap them. Do not leave cartons beside a full bank, because that counts as fly-tipping.
If your recycling will not fit in the bin, the council will take extra in clear bags left beside it. Flattened cardboard can be bundled and left next to the bin, ideally in a clear bag to keep it dry.
Elsewhere on Elmbridge News
- Elmbridge roadworks and travel, updated from the National Highways and Surrey registers
- Parking in Elmbridge, with every council car park tariff
- Elmbridge council tax bands for 2026 to 2027
Every figure on this page was checked against Elmbridge Borough Council, Joint Waste Solutions or Surrey County Council on 26 August 2026. Services change: confirm anything you are relying on with the council before you act on it.
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