Cornwall bin collections

By Mark Andrews. Checked against Cornwall Council pages on 26 October 2026.

No recycling wheelie bin in Cornwall. You get three coloured bags and a black box instead, and the sorting is on you. Food goes every week in the green caddy, while the black bin and the recycling go fortnightly.

Which bin is which in Cornwall

Plastic, cartons and metal packaging go in the red bag, paper in the blue and cardboard in the orange. Glass shares the black box with textiles. Rubbish has to be bagged before it goes in the black bin or out as a sack.

Black General waste Black wheelie bin or sackFortnightly
Green Food waste Green caddyWeekly
Red Recycling Red bag (plastic, cartons and metal packaging)Fortnightly
Orange Paper & card Orange bag (cardboard)
Blue Recycling Blue bag (paper)Fortnightly
Black Glass Black box (glass and textiles)
Brown Garden waste Brown wheelie binFortnightly

Christmas and New Year collections 2026

Everything from Christmas Day onwards slips by one collection day, so Friday 25 December's round goes out on Monday 28 December. Normal days are back from Monday 4 January.

Usual dayCollected on
Friday 25 DecemberMonday 28 December
Monday 28 DecemberTuesday 29 December
Tuesday 29 DecemberWednesday 30 December
Wednesday 30 DecemberThursday 31 December
Thursday 31 DecemberFriday 1 January
Friday 1 JanuarySaturday 2 January

Garden waste: £76 a year

£76 a year for a 240 litre brown bin, and first-timers buy the bin on top. New applications close at the end of December, and if you join after April you only pay for the months left. Collections carry on through bank holidays apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Sign up for garden waste collection

Weekly food waste collection

Weekly, from the green outdoor caddy. There's a silver caddy for the kitchen, and liners are optional.

Report a missed bin

Rounds run until 6pm, so give it until the end of the working day before you report. The crew should be back by 6pm the next working day.

Report a missed bin to Cornwall

Bulky waste collection from £44

£44 covers the first four standard items, and you can add up to four more at £16 each. Eight items is the cap, one order a week.

Book a bulky waste collection

Recycling centres in Cornwall

There are 14 household waste and recycling centres around the county.

  • Bodmin
  • Bude
  • Connon Bridge
  • Falmouth and Penryn
  • Helston
  • Launceston
  • Newquay
  • Redruth (Pool)
  • Saltash
  • St Austell
  • St Day (United Downs)
  • St Erth (Hayle)
  • Tintagel (Bowithick)
  • Truro

Worth knowing in Cornwall

Christmas trees only get collected if you pay for garden waste, and they go on your normal garden waste day. Whatever's going, have it out by 7am.

Get told the night before

Binformation is a free Android app. Put your postcode in once and it sends a notification the evening before each collection, saying which bins are going. If the council moves your day for a bank holiday, the reminder moves with it.

Binformation on Google Play

Where this comes from

Every fact on this page was read from the council's own website, last checked on 26 October 2026. Councils change prices each April, so check the link before you pay for anything.

Linking to this page is fine. Scraping it, or copying the council information in bulk, isn't: see the terms of use.