Sevenoaks bin days change from 25 December to 15 January: every revised date is here. Garden waste stops on 21 December and returns on 18 January.

Sevenoaks District Council has published its Christmas and New Year collection dates for 2026/27, and 16 normal collection days move. Nothing changes up to and including Thursday 24 December. From Friday 25 December each general waste, recycling and food waste round runs one to four days late, the last revised round is on Saturday 16 January, and normal days return on Monday 18 January (Sevenoaks District Council, Christmas bin collections, read 4 November 2026).

Garden waste is separate: it stops altogether from Monday 21 December and comes back on Monday 18 January.

This is the first Christmas on the wheelie bin service, which started on 12 October 2026.

Your revised collection day

Find the day your bin would normally go out, then read across.

Revised general waste, recycling and food waste collection days, Christmas 2026/27. Source: Sevenoaks District Council.
Normal collection dayRevised collection day
Friday 25 DecemberTuesday 29 December
Monday 28 DecemberWednesday 30 December
Tuesday 29 DecemberThursday 31 December
Wednesday 30 DecemberSaturday 2 January
Thursday 31 DecemberMonday 4 January
Friday 1 JanuaryTuesday 5 January
Monday 4 JanuaryWednesday 6 January
Tuesday 5 JanuaryThursday 7 January
Wednesday 6 JanuaryFriday 8 January
Thursday 7 JanuarySaturday 9 January
Friday 8 JanuaryMonday 11 January
Monday 11 JanuaryTuesday 12 January
Tuesday 12 JanuaryWednesday 13 January
Wednesday 13 JanuaryThursday 14 January
Thursday 14 JanuaryFriday 15 January
Friday 15 JanuarySaturday 16 January

Worked through, the table says four things the council does not spell out:

  • The longest wait is four days. It falls on the rounds normally collected on Friday 25 December, Thursday 31 December and Friday 1 January.
  • There are three Saturday rounds: 2, 9 and 16 January.
  • No revised round falls on Monday 28 December or Friday 1 January, the two bank holidays after Christmas Day.
  • A date can appear in both columns. If your normal day is Tuesday 29 December you go out on Thursday 31 December, even though the 29th is listed as a revised day: that one belongs to the Friday 25 December round.

Put bins out by 7am on the revised day, and leave them until they have been emptied or until 4pm, whichever comes first. Different lorries take wheelie bins and food waste, so they can be emptied at different times, and the council warns that times may vary more than usual over the festive period.

Which bin goes out? The table moves the day, not the bin. Food waste is still weekly. If you are unsure whether a date is your recycling or your general waste, the council points to its collection days page.

Garden waste stops for four weeks

The council’s notice reads that garden waste collections “will be suspended from Monday 21 December 2026 and will resume on Monday 18 January 2027” (garden waste collection). The revised table above does not apply to them.

That creates one trap. Since 12 October the garden bin has gone out with the black bin, but that rule stops for these four weeks: your black bin still has a revised day and your garden bin has none.

Because the service is fortnightly, the gap is longer than the break. If your fortnight carries on as it is, your last collection falls in the week of 7 or 14 December and your next in the week of 18 or 25 January, which is six weeks either way. That is our arithmetic rather than a council statement, so confirm your January date on the collection days page before you put the bin out.

How this differs from 2024/25

The last table we have from before this one covers 2024/25, when the council moved most rounds by one to three days and garden waste stopped after Friday 13 December, returning on Monday 13 January (Sevenoaks District Council, archived 14 December 2024). This year the longest wait is a day longer, because Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both fall on a Friday, with the Boxing Day bank holiday on Monday 28 December (GOV.UK).

On alternate weekly rounds a missed bin also costs more than it did. Recycling and general waste each come once a fortnight, so a bin that misses its revised day can wait two weeks. Our Sevenoaks bin collection days page covers the new service in detail.

Christmas tree collections

The council published its tree page for 2026/27 on its website by 11 November. It offers three routes, and none of them is a free kerbside tree round (Sevenoaks District Council, Christmas tree collections):

  • Hospice in the Weald collection, 7 to 11 January 2027. Volunteers take undecorated trees for composting, for a recommended donation of £20. It covers TN1 to TN20 postcodes only.
  • A household waste recycling centre. Kent County Council’s tips take most real trees for composting.
  • Your garden waste bin, from Monday 18 January. Permit holders only. The trunk must be no more than 90mm (3.5 inches) across, the tree must not stick out of the bin and the lid must close, so you may need to cut it up.

The TN postcode limit matters. Sevenoaks, Edenbridge and Westerham fall inside it. Villages in the north of the district with DA or BR postcodes, such as Eynsford, Farningham and New Ash Green, do not.

Registration for the hospice collection is not open yet. The charity says it opens in late November, and that it hopes to collect 2,600 trees and raise more than £70,000 (Hospice in the Weald, Christmas Tree Recycling). The £20 figure comes from the council’s page; the hospice’s own page does not yet give a price.

Our tip opening times page has the recycling centre hours, which change over the holiday.

What to do if a collection is missed

Check the revised table first, because a bin left on its normal day is not a missed collection. The council takes reports after 4pm on your collection day, and will only investigate one made within one working day of it; after that you wait for the next planned collection (check your waste day and report a missed collection).

The council’s offices close on bank holidays. They are open Monday to Thursday from 8.45am to 5pm and Friday from 8.45am to 4.45pm, with an out-of-hours emergency line on 01732 227000 (Sevenoaks District Council).

Frequently asked questions

When are the Sevenoaks Christmas bin collections 2026? There is no change up to and including Thursday 24 December. Rounds then run late from Friday 25 December, moving to Tuesday 29 December, through to the Friday 15 January round, which moves to Saturday 16 January. The full table is above (Sevenoaks District Council).

When do Sevenoaks bin collections go back to normal after Christmas? Monday 18 January 2027.

Are there bin collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day in Sevenoaks? Rounds normally due on Friday 25 December and Friday 1 January move to Tuesday 29 December and Tuesday 5 January. There is no normal Saturday round on 26 December, and the Monday 28 December bank holiday round moves to Wednesday 30 December.

Is garden waste collected over Christmas? No. Garden waste collections are suspended from Monday 21 December 2026 and resume on Monday 18 January 2027 (Sevenoaks District Council).

What time should I put my bins out over Christmas? By 7am on your revised collection day, and leave them out until they have been emptied or until 4pm, whichever comes first.

Which days are bank holidays this Christmas? Friday 25 December 2026, Monday 28 December 2026 as the Boxing Day substitute, and Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK).

Sources

Last checked 11 November 2026, when the council’s Christmas tree page for 2026/27 was added. The collection table was first published here on 4 November.

Image: “Discarded Christmas trees, Clapham” by Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Discarded_Christmas_trees,Clapham-geograph.org.uk-_2237364.jpg).