Ealing Refuse Collection: Bin Days, Missed Bins & Waste

by
London Borough of Ealing · current 2026 household guide

Ealing Refuse Collection: Bin Days, Missed Bins & Waste

Ealing’s normal household service is easier to understand once you separate the four different rhythms: black rubbish and blue recycling alternate, the small green food-waste bin is collected every week, and paid garden waste is normally collected every two weeks.

This guide covers the details that cause most real collection problems: the 7am boundary rule, the very short missed-bin reporting window, white rejection tags, extra recycling, batteries and textiles, flats and communal bins, larger rubbish bins, assisted collections, clinical waste, bulky-item rules, garden-waste prices and Greenford Road recycling-centre booking.

Check My Ealing Collection Day Report a Missed Collection Solve My Bin Problem
7AM collection boundary deadline
BLACK
ALTERNATE WEEK
BLUE
ALTERNATE WEEK
FOOD
EVERY WEEK
GARDEN
EVERY 2 WEEKS

Ealing Bin Days: The Quick Answer

Most houses in Ealing have black rubbish and blue recycling collected on alternate weeks. Your small green food-waste bin is collected every week. Garden waste is a separate paid fortnightly service.

Your exact weekday and next date are property-specific, so enter your postcode and select the exact address in Ealing Council’s live collection-day finder.

Set out By 7am
Black rubbish Alternate weeks
Blue recycling Alternate weeks
Food Every week
Missed report 5pm–1pm next day
Bulky waste £30 / up to 6
Flat / communal exception: households using communal bins and residents living in flats above shops can have weekly rubbish/recycling arrangements rather than the standard house-based alternate-week wheelie-bin pattern.

How to Find Your Exact Ealing Refuse Collection Day

Ealing collects Monday to Friday, but there is no single borough-wide “black bin Tuesday” or “recycling Friday”. Your address determines the actual collection day.

1

Enter your postcode

Open Ealing Council’s collection-day finder and search using the postcode for the property.

2

Select your exact address

Choose the individual property. For a shared communal collection, select the block rather than the flat number when instructed.

3

Read each container date

The checker can show rubbish, recycling and garden dates rather than forcing you to work out the alternate-week cycle manually.

4

Save / print the calendar

Keep the dates somewhere visible and recheck around the Christmas and New Year period.

Open Official Collection-Day Finder
No collection appears for your address? Ealing’s collection lookup instructs residents to contact the council on 020 8825 6000 where no collections are displayed.

How Ealing’s Normal Household Collection Cycle Works

For a typical kerbside house, food waste is the constant weekly service while the black and blue wheelie bins alternate.

Week A
Blue recycling bin Small green food bin Garden if scheduled
Week B
Black rubbish bin Small green food bin Garden if scheduled
Garden-waste variation: most 2026/27 subscribers have garden waste collected on the same day as the blue recycling bin, but Ealing says some subscribers can have the green garden container emptied on their black-bin week. Use your own garden calendar rather than assuming.

Ealing Bin Colours: What Each Container Is For

Black Rubbish Bin

Non-recyclable household rubbish only. Waste should be bagged inside the bin and the lid kept closed.

Alternate weeks 180L standard

Blue Recycling Bin

Dry mixed household recycling such as paper, card, accepted plastics, glass, metal packaging and cartons.

Alternate weeks Recycling loose

Small Green Food Bin

Household food scraps are collected every week, separately from black rubbish and blue dry recycling.

Every week No plastic liners

Green Garden Waste

Paid subscription service using a green wheelie bin, reusable sacks or council-approved compostable sacks, depending on the property.

Every 2 weeks Subscription required

How to Put Your Ealing Bins Out Correctly

By 7am

Put rubbish, recycling and food waste out before 7am on the scheduled collection day.

Inside your boundary

Leave containers visibly at the edge of the property, close to the street or pavement, but not actually blocking the pavement.

Shut the black lid

Rubbish must be bagged inside the black wheelie bin and its lid kept shut. Extra black bags placed beside or on top are not normally collected.

Sack-service residents: if your property uses rubbish or recycling sacks rather than wheelie bins, Ealing advises putting the sacks out on collection day rather than the night before so animals have less time to tear them open.
Fly-tipping warning: leaving rubbish or recycling outside more than one day away from the proper collection day can potentially be treated as fly-tipping.

Ealing Missed-Bin Checker: Report It or Fix It?

Ealing’s reporting deadline is much tighter than many councils. Use this before waiting several days.

Choose the situation that best matches your collection problem.

Ealing’s Missed-Bin Reporting Window Is Very Short

A resident who waits until the weekend or several days later can miss the normal online return-collection window.

7am correct container should already be presented
5pm earliest normal time to report a missed collection
1pm deadline on the day after the scheduled collection
Next day council aims to collect by end of next working day
Do not report before 5pm. Collection vehicles work between about 7am and 5pm and may reach your road later than usual.
Food may be collected separately. Your black or blue wheelie bin being emptied does not necessarily mean the food crew has already visited.
Report Ealing Missed Collection

White Tag on Your Ealing Bin? Do Not Report It as Missed

A white tag normally means the crew intentionally did not empty the container because of incorrect contents or a presentation/access problem.

Why a tag is left

  • The bin contains something that should not be there.
  • The container was inaccessible.
  • The bin was not presented correctly.

What to do next

  • Read the white tag.
  • Remove the incorrect material.
  • Remove the tag.
  • Present correctly by 7am on the next scheduled collection.
No immediate return: Ealing states that the crew will not return to empty a bin that was intentionally rejected and tagged. Correct the problem for the next scheduled collection.

Blue Recycling Bin: What Ealing Accepts

Material Ealing route Useful rule
Paper Blue recycling bin Paper, envelopes and junk mail are accepted.
Newspapers / magazines Blue recycling bin Place loose with other dry recycling.
Cardboard / thin card Blue recycling bin Flatten larger cardboard where practical.
Plastic bottles Blue recycling bin Use the dry mixed recycling stream.
Plastic pots and tubs Blue recycling bin Accepted rigid household packaging.
Metal tins and cans Blue recycling bin Includes household cans and tins.
Aerosol cans Blue recycling bin Household aerosol cans are listed as accepted.
Clean foil Blue recycling bin Keep food contamination out.
Glass bottles and jars Blue recycling bin Do not place loose broken glass around the bin.
Food / drink cartons Blue recycling bin Accepted within the mixed recycling service.
Loose recycling: Ealing asks residents to put recycling loose inside the blue bin. Extra recycling can be presented neatly in a bag beside the blue bin where necessary.
Soft plastics: plastic bags, crisp packets, bread bags and similar thin films are not part of Ealing’s normal home blue-bin recycling. Some supermarkets provide separate soft-plastic collection points.

Batteries and Textiles: Put Them on Top, Not Inside the Blue Bin

Household batteries

Batteries should be separately bagged and placed on top of the blue recycling bin rather than dropped loose into the mixed recycling.

This separation also reduces fire risk in collection and sorting equipment.

Clothing and suitable textiles

Clean reusable clothes and textiles can be placed in a clear bag on top of the blue recycling wheelie bin on collection day.

Good-quality textiles can also be donated, sold, taken to a clothing bank or collected through Ealing/WLWA reuse schemes.

Do not hide batteries or textiles inside the blue bin. The council specifically separates these items from the dry mixed recycling contents.

Weekly Food Waste Collection in Ealing

Food waste is one of the easiest ways to free space in a fortnightly black rubbish bin because the small green food container is emptied every week.

Yes — food bin

  • Bread and pastries
  • Dairy products
  • Fish
  • Eggshells
  • Fruit and vegetable peelings
  • Plate scrapings and leftovers
  • Meat and bones
  • Tea bags and coffee grounds
  • Vegetables

No — keep out

  • Cardboard
  • Carrier bags
  • Black sacks
  • Cling film
  • Liquids
  • Nappies
  • Food packaging
  • Pet litter
  • Tissues and kitchen roll
Food-bin liner rule: line the container with newspaper or a suitable compostable bag. Ealing specifically says not to use ordinary plastic bags as food-bin liners.
What happens to it? Ealing says separately collected food waste goes to a processing facility where it helps generate electricity and produces fertiliser for agricultural use.
Replacement food bin: a new or replacement outdoor food-waste bin can be ordered free of charge.

Black Rubbish Bin: Ealing’s Residual-Waste Rules

The black bin should contain household rubbish that cannot be recycled using Ealing’s home services.

Presentation rules

  • Bag rubbish before putting it in the black bin.
  • Keep the lid closed.
  • Do not balance extra bags on top.
  • Do not leave extra rubbish beside the bin.
  • Do not place furniture next to it.

If the bin is always full

Check that food is using the weekly green food container and paper, card, glass, cans and accepted plastics are using the blue bin.

If the household still genuinely needs more residual capacity, Ealing has an application route for a larger or extra rubbish bin.

Larger Ealing Rubbish Bin or Extra Capacity

Standard black bin

Ealing describes the standard rubbish wheelie bin as 180 litres, holding roughly four ordinary bin bags.

Large black bin

The larger option is approximately 360 litres and can hold around seven bin bags.

Approval required

Large household size, medical need or another genuine reason can support an application, but the council checks whether the household is recycling as much as reasonably possible first.

Do not simply obtain another black bin. Ealing keeps records of the correct number of bins at each property. Unauthorised extra rubbish bins will not normally be emptied.
Extra recycling is easier: additional blue recycling wheelie bins and extra food-waste bins can be ordered without the rubbish-bin purchase charge.

Replacement Bin Charges: Check the Live Price Before Paying

Ealing’s live ordering page and its 2026/27 fee schedule are not perfectly aligned on the rubbish-bin amount, so use the amount shown in the live transaction as the final payable price.

Container Live service page currently states 2026/27 fees schedule figure Best action
180L standard rubbish bin £50 £51.90 listed in 2026/27 fees schedule Confirm current checkout / order amount before paying.
360L large rubbish bin £75 £77.85 listed in 2026/27 fees schedule Large-bin approval is also required.
Extra recycling bin No purchase charge stated Service-specific Order through the container request service.
Replacement food bin Free Service-specific Use the recycling-container order form.
Why show both figures? It is safer to make the resident aware of the live-page/fee-schedule difference than silently publish one price as permanently fixed.
Delivery target: Ealing aims to deliver approved bins, boxes or sacks within around 10 working days, although assessment can make an order take longer.

Flats Above Shops, Estates, Sacks and Communal Bins

Ealing’s collection service changes significantly when a property does not have suitable front space for normal wheelie bins.

Black sack rubbish

Some flats above shops and estate properties use loose black sacks rather than a private black wheelie bin.

Clear recycling sacks

Properties using black-sack rubbish often receive clear mixed recycling sacks. Ealing says these rolls are provided free around three times a year.

Communal containers

Estates and blocks can use shared rubbish, recycling and food facilities in communal bin stores.

Weekly collection: Ealing states that residents using communal bins or living in flats above shops have weekly collection arrangements.
Switching to communal bins: residents or managing agents can ask the council to assess whether a site is suitable. Communal bins themselves can be purchased, while the collection service is free.

Assisted Bin Collections in Ealing

Residents who cannot physically move their rubbish and recycling to the front boundary because of disability, illness or mobility problems can apply for assistance.

What changes

Instead of collecting from the front boundary, the crew can collect the containers from the resident’s front doorstep and return them after emptying.

Who should apply

The service is intended for households where nobody else is available to move the bins for the qualifying resident.

Flats are excluded from this particular assisted-bin service. Ealing directs residents in flats who need help to contact their landlord.
Two-year register: assisted-collection registration lasts for two years and residents need to reapply if help is still required after that.

Ealing Garden Waste Collection Prices for 2026/27

Ealing’s paid garden service now uses staged prices depending on when the resident joins during the 2026/27 service year.

Subscription period Standard rate Concession / second subscription Scheduled collections
April 2026 – March 2027 £75 £50 23 collections
July 2026 – March 2027 £52.17 £34.78 16 collections
October 2026 – March 2027 £29.35 £19.57 9 collections

Concessions

Discounted rates can be available to households receiving means-tested benefits and residents aged 65 or over, subject to eligibility checks.

Winter pause

Collections pause during December 2026 and restart during February 2027. Your individual calendar gives the precise dates.

23 collections

The full-year price gives 23 collections where the resident subscribes before the start of the April service year.

Cancellation detail: a full refund can normally be requested within seven working days after payment, but the cancellation right ends once the garden-waste containers have been delivered.
Moving out of Ealing? the terms allow a resident to request a pro-rata refund if they move outside the borough and return the garden-waste container.
Subscribe / Check Garden Waste

What Can Go in an Ealing Garden Waste Container?

Accepted

  • Grass cuttings
  • Old garden plants
  • House plants
  • Twigs
  • Hedge trimmings
  • Weeds
  • Flowers
  • Leaves

Not accepted

  • Plastic pots, trays or bags
  • Soil
  • Rocks and stones
  • Branches
  • Large tree trunks, stumps or logs
  • Vegetable peelings
  • Food waste
  • Fallen fruit
15cm rule: Ealing specifically excludes tree trunks, stumps and logs larger than about 15cm in diameter.
Container choices: the service can use a 240-litre green wheelie bin, three 90-litre reusable sacks, or an approved quantity of compostable sacks depending on the subscription/property.
No plastic sacks: put garden waste directly into the council-approved wheelie bin, reusable sacks or compostable sacks. Do not line those containers with ordinary plastic bags.

Ealing Bulky Waste Collection: £30 for Up to 6 Items

The 2026/27 bulky-item charge was reduced to £30, and fridges/freezers are now included within the main bulky service rather than having a separate standalone fridge charge.

Price £30
Standard booking Up to 6 items
Collection window 7am–3pm
More than 6 Quote required

Typical accepted items

  • Sofas
  • Beds
  • Mattresses
  • Fridges
  • Freezers
  • Wardrobes
  • Washing machines

A bed base and mattress count as two items.

Items Ealing will not take

  • Builders’ rubbish
  • Bricks or concrete
  • Asbestos
  • Earth, sand or gravel
  • Tins of paint
  • Oil
  • Gas cylinders
  • Tyres
  • Batteries
  • Pianos
  • Items contaminated by mould or pest infestation
Front boundary only: booked items must be easy to see and access at pavement level inside the property boundary by 7am. Ealing does not normally collect from rear gardens.
Keep sofas and mattresses dry. The council asks residents to cover them where possible before the scheduled collection.
Only booked items are taken. Do not add an extra chair, mattress or appliance after booking unless it has been added to the collection request.

Live on the A40 or North Circular? Ealing’s Bulky Collection May Not Apply

This is an important local exception that many generic waste pages miss.

Ealing Council does not collect normal bulky-waste bookings from red routes such as the A40 or North Circular.

What to use instead

Residents living on a red route are directed to the West London Waste Authority bulky-waste service rather than Ealing’s standard front-boundary bulky collection.

Bulky Waste From a Block of Flats: Avoid a Fly-Tipping Mistake

Ealing gives flats and estates extra presentation instructions because leaving furniture around a communal bin store can easily look like illegal dumping.

On the booked day

  • Put items out by 7am.
  • Only present the items included in the booking.
  • Keep entrances and bin-store access clear.
  • Do not block the pavement.

Add the collection note

Ealing asks residents in blocks to attach a note saying the items are awaiting collection by Greener Ealing and include the collection number.

Without that identification, items around an estate can be treated as fly-tipped waste.

Clinical Waste and Sharps Collection in Ealing

Ealing provides a free household clinical-waste service when the resident has the appropriate healthcare referral.

Clinical sacks can include

  • Soiled dressings
  • Blood or bodily-fluid contaminated waste
  • Swabs and dressings

Regular clinical-sack collections start within around two weeks and then take place weekly.

Sharps boxes

Syringes, EpiPens and needles must use an approved yellow sharps container. Ealing does not stock or deliver the boxes; they are normally supplied with medication or through healthcare services.

Sharps-box collection is a one-off request and must be requested again each time another box requires collection.

Postcode area Sharps collection day
HA0, NW10, UB1, UB2 Wednesday
UB5, UB6 Thursday
W postcodes Friday
Sharps target: Ealing says approved sharps-box collection should take place within around 14 working days.
Some medical items still use normal rubbish: Ealing lists items such as incontinence pads, used nappies, catheter/stoma bags, latex gloves, masks and sanitary waste as ordinary rubbish where they are not infectious clinical waste.
Medicines and tablets: Ealing does not collect unused drugs through this service. Return them to a pharmacy instead.

Greenford Road Reuse & Recycling Centre

Greenford Road is Ealing’s main borough reuse and recycling centre for residents who need to dispose of suitable bulky items, general household rubbish and recyclable materials outside the kerbside collection service.

UB6 9AP Greenford Road, Greenford
Book first No entry without a slot
2 slots Maximum per household per week
30 min Booking / car visit period

1 April – 30 September

Open Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 8am–5pm.

Wednesday and Thursday are closed to the public.

Last normal booking slot is 4pm–4:30pm.

1 October – 31 March

Open Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 8am–4pm.

Wednesday and Thursday remain closed.

Last normal booking slot is 3pm–3:30pm.

Christmas closures: Greenford Road is closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Bring ID: visitors must bring photo identification and proof that they live in the borough.
Transport: the booked site accepts cars, motorcycles and cyclists. Pedestrian entry is not permitted.
Not everything is free: charges apply to certain DIY, construction, demolition, excavation and trade/commercial waste. Hazardous materials such as asbestos are not accepted through the normal site service.

Small DIY allowance

Ealing’s bulky-waste guidance says residents can take a limited amount of DIY waste free to Greenford Road: up to two 50-litre rubble bags or one qualifying item no larger than approximately 2m × 0.75m × 0.7m.

Always check the current recycling-centre rules before loading the vehicle because material restrictions can change.

Greenford Road Centre Details

Bank Holidays, Christmas and Temporary Ealing Collection Changes

Do not assume every bank holiday automatically shifts your collection by one day.

Normal weeks

Use Ealing’s live property checker for the actual household collection date rather than applying a generic London bank holiday rule.

Christmas / New Year

Ealing’s postcode-table service warns that its simple table does not automatically account for Christmas holiday changes.

Download or print the household calendar for the festive period once the council publishes the relevant dates.

Do not extrapolate December dates. Festive collection patterns can differ significantly from the normal alternate-week sequence.

Ealing Waste Route Checker

Use this quick helper for some of the items residents most often put in the wrong container.

Select an item to see the most useful Ealing disposal route.

Ealing Collection Tips That Prevent Real Problems

Photograph a rejected bin

If the white tag is unclear, take a photo before removing it. That preserves the reason while you correct the contents.

Save the deadline

A phone reminder for 5pm on collection day is useful because the missed-bin reporting window ends at 1pm the following day.

Use weekly food collection

Diverting food every week is one of the most effective ways to stop the 180L black bin overflowing before its fortnightly round.

Number your containers

Marking bins with the property number can reduce mix-ups where several neighbours present containers together.

Sort Greenford loads first

Ealing limits car visits to around 30 minutes, so separating cardboard, garden material, metals and other waste at home saves time onsite.

Reuse before £30 bulky booking

A usable sofa, wardrobe or appliance may be accepted by a charity or local reuse platform, avoiding both waste and the collection fee.

Ealing Refuse Collection FAQs

1. How do I check my Ealing refuse collection day?

Use Ealing Council’s collection-day finder, enter your postcode and select your exact address. Most houses have black rubbish and blue recycling on alternate weeks, but your exact weekday is property-specific.

2. What time must I put my Ealing bins out?

Put rubbish, recycling and food-waste containers visibly at the front boundary of the property by 7am on collection day. Keep them within your boundary rather than obstructing the pavement.

3. How often does Ealing collect food waste?

Household food waste is collected every week. For most kerbside houses this means the small green food bin goes out whether it is black-bin week or blue-recycling week.

4. When can I report a missed Ealing bin?

The normal reporting window opens at 5pm on the scheduled collection day and closes at 1pm the following day. Check that the correct bin was out by 7am, the crew has visited and no white rejection tag was left.

5. What does a white tag on an Ealing bin mean?

A white tag means the bin was intentionally not emptied because the contents or presentation were wrong, or access was a problem. Remove the incorrect material, remove the tag and present the bin correctly on the next scheduled collection. Do not report the tagged bin as a normal missed collection.

6. Can I leave extra rubbish beside my black bin?

No. Ealing states that extra rubbish placed on top of or beside the black wheelie bin will not be collected. Extra dry recycling is treated differently and can be placed neatly in a suitable bag beside the blue bin where necessary.

7. How much is Ealing garden waste collection in 2026/27?

The full April 2026 to March 2027 garden-waste subscription is £75 for 23 scheduled collections. The concessionary and second subscription rate is £50. Reduced prices apply to residents joining from July or October 2026.

8. How much is Ealing bulky waste collection?

The current household bulky service costs £30 for up to six eligible items. More than six items require a special quote. Items must be booked in advance and presented visibly inside the front boundary by 7am.

9. Do Ealing flats have the same alternate-week bin schedule?

Not always. Ealing states that residents using communal bins and flats above shops have weekly collection arrangements. Properties may use communal containers, clear recycling sacks or black rubbish sacks depending on the site.

10. Do I need to book Greenford Road recycling centre?

Yes. Ealing requires residents to book a time slot before visiting Greenford Road Reuse and Recycling Centre. Residents arriving without a booking can be refused entry. Bring photo ID and proof of Ealing residence.

Independent resident guide: this article explains London Borough of Ealing rubbish, recycling, food, garden and bulky-waste services in practical language. It is not Ealing Council. Address-specific collection dates, live disruption, Christmas timetables, prices and service availability should always be checked through the official council services linked above.

Leave a Comment