• Parking and traffic enforcement arrangements
• Disposal of Christmas trees
• Recycling cards and wrapping paper
• Reuse and recycling centres
• Get food-savvy for Christmas
• Textile recycling
• Christmas recycling
• Civic Offices Christmas opening times

Rubbish and recycling arrangements

There will be no collections on Wednesday 25 December, Thursday 26 December and Wednesday 1 January. Waste and recycling collections have been revised as follows:

Normal arrangements will resume Monday 6 January.

Garden waste service will be suspended from week commencing Monday 23 December for two weeks and will resume on Monday 6 January.

Please place your waste and recycling out for collection at the front edge of your property before 6am.

Parking and traffic enforcement arrangements

If you are driving or looking for a place to park over the festive period, please be aware of the restrictions/arrangements that will be in place.

Find out more about the parking arrangements

Disposal of Christmas trees

Real Christmas trees can be collected for recycling via the garden waste service. This service is suspended over the Christmas period and restarts Monday 6 January 2025. Please remove all decorations, cut the tree in half and place it next to your garden waste bin ready for collection.

Recycling cards and wrapping paper

You can recycle most cards and envelopes. Ensure you remove any decorations such as ribbons, bows and glitter first as these items cannot be recycled.

You can recycle most wrapping paper if it passes the scrunch test. Ensure you remove any sticky tape and decorations such as ribbons and bows before you do so. Note: paper-based wrapping papers can be recycled, but foil or glitter decorated papers cannot and must go into the general waste bin.

Remember, do the scrunch test with the wrapping paper first - if it doesn’t spring back it is non-foil and can be recycled.

Reuse and recycling centres

The Thames Road, Crayford and Maidstone Road, Foots Cray, sites are open 7.30am to 4pm. They are closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Please note: Foots Cray is closed on Wednesdays.

Get food-savvy for Christmas

Over shopping, cooking more food than is required and not making good use of leftover food means food waste at Christmas is a huge issue.

In the UK we waste 5 million Christmas puddings, 2 million turkeys, and 74 million mince pies each year.

This year, instead of throwing away your leftovers, freeze them. You may be surprised just how many Christmas foods can be frozen such as cooked turkey, ham and your Christmas pud. Freezing your Christmas leftovers will save food and money, as well as allowing you to enjoy your Christmas treats for months to come. For tips, visit the Love Food Hate Waste website.

So, we all need to be doing all we can to reduce food waste and think about how we could shop more mindfully.

Top tips on how to stay food-savvy:

1. Try not to overbuy - If you’re hosting, take an hour or so to plan everything well in advance. This means everything from snacks and starters to the turkey and beyond.
2. Check what food you already have in your home - find easy ways to help you remember what you’ve got so that you can use this up first and avoid doubling up on food you already have.
3. Plan - consider the space you need in your fridge, freezer, and cupboards to store your festive food at least a week or two ahead of buying the bulk of your festive food.
4. Use up those leftovers - For creative recipes visit the Love Food Hate Waste website

Please ensure all unavoidable food waste is placed in your food waste recycling box ready to be transformed into green energy and food-grade fertiliser. Order a brown food recycling box if you haven't already got one.

You can also find out more on the Food Waste page.

Textile recycling

Christmas is a time of year when we venture into our wardrobes and begin the winter clearout. TRAID now offer a free home collection service in Bexley, so it’s perfect if you have lots of clothes to donate in one go. If you are donating 2 bags of clothes then TRAID can also collect a small bag of broken small/medium-sized electrical items for recycling, such as kettles and toasters from you at the same time.

This service allows you to book a collection on a day that suits you.

For free Christmas Eco events visit the Bexley Eco Festival website.

Find out more
 

Electrical Item Recycling

Batteries, vapes and electrical items should never be placed in your rubbish bin. Batteries and hidden batteries within electrical items can cause fires that quickly spread and are difficult to extinguish, causing widespread damage.

Small electrical items can be placed into the electrical recycling banks placed across the Borough.

Larger electrical items can be taken to one of our Reuse and Recycling sites or collected for a charge via our bulky waste collection service.

A small bag of broken small/medium-sized electrical items such as kettles and toasters can be collected through the TRAID kerbside collection service as long as you are recycling two bags of clothes at the same time.

Batteries can be taken to our two Reuse and Recycling Centres, council libraries, Civic Offices, Bexleyheath and most large supermarkets where they have designated containers for recycling.

Vapes must have their batteries removed for recycling and then should be recycled as other electrical items shown above. 

Christmas recycling

Please remember to recycle as much as possible this Christmas.

Civic Offices Christmas opening times

The reception operational hours will be as follows;

For out of hours emergency call 020 8303 7777.