All items must be your own household rubbish (day-to-day rubbish or recycling from your home or garden). Please sort your materials before your visit.

For reuse

Where possible, items in good reusable condition should be donated for reuse. The following can be donated for reuse:

• books
• bicycles
• clothing and paired shoes
• electronics and appliances
• furniture

For recycling:

• batteries (car and domestic)
• bric a brac
• broken electricals & appliances
• card and cardboard
• carpets*
• cooking oil
• engine oil
• fluorescent tubes and long-life bulbs
• food and drink cans
• gas bottles and fire extinguishers (seek assistance but should be returned to the supplier where possible)
• glass bottles and jars
• green garden waste (no animal bedding)
• lawnmowers and garden machinery (please discharge all oil and petrol first, if applicable)
• liquid food and drinks cartons
• mattresses*
• paper and magazines (including shredded paper)
• plastic bottles and household plastic containers
• printer cartridges (please remove packaging)
• rigid plastics (e.g. toys, garden furniture, plant pots)*
• plasterboard
• scrap metal
• soil and rubble
• textiles in non-reusable condition; bedding; towels and cloths
• up to 5 tyres (however, if possible, please take these to local garages. Tyres can often be disposed of with the company that supplies your new tyres)
• wood, chipboard and plywood

*recycled where possible

For disposal:

• asbestos sheets
• non-recyclable household rubbish 
• water-based paint (with the lid off and the paint dried)

What you cannot take:

• chemicals 
• oil-based paints or varnishes

Please refer to the Hazardous Waste page for information on how to deal with these items.

Commercial waste

We cannot accept commercial waste or trade waste. This includes but it is not limited to:

• waste resulting from any form of employment or commercial enterprise 
• waste from any property other than from your own home 
• waste created from contractors working in your own home 
• vehicle parts (not from a resident repairing their own car)

1. Visitors’ addresses (main residences) must be within the London Borough of Bexley’s administrative area. A driving licence or a Council tax bill will be required upon entry on site. Residents with paperless Council Tax bill will need to show the security on site the original email on their phone sent to them by Bexley Council for the new Council Tax year.
2. The right to use the sites and any allowances are for the person resident in the borough and is not transferable. The resident of the borough should be present in the vehicle accessing the site.
3. Old permits or copies of the permits will not be accepted, and entry will be refused.
4. Residents address, vehicle type, vehicle registration plate and type of waste brought on site will be recorded upon entry.
5. Copies of the original documents will not be accepted, and entry will be refused.
6. The deposit of rubbish will remain subject to the London Borough of Bexley Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) operational policies.
7. On-site checks may be undertaken to confirm that the rubbish is from the household and is not arising from any business/restricted activity.
8. Site users may be asked to complete a Declaration of Waste origin form before depositing waste on site which will be retained on site and may be subject to further checks by our Enviro-Crime Enforcement Team.
9. The tenant of a rented property will be the person eligible to use the recycling centre and not the landlord regardless of who pays the Council tax.
10. The waste generated upon the departure of the tenants by the landlord is classified as commercial waste as the renting of a property is a commercial business. Charges will apply if the landlord of the rented property disposes the waste in Bexley’s Reuse and Recycling Centres.
11. Garden waste generated from an allotment can be disposed of onsite. Residents will need to provide the original allotment tenancy agreement or renewal as evidence if requested by the Environmental Services team.
12. It is illegal to dispose of ‘trade rubbish’ arising from a business/restricted activity at the Reuse and Recycling Centre. Any evidence that ‘trade rubbish’ has been deposited, (or attempted to be deposited) can lead to enforcement activity resulting in a Fixed Penalty Notice, criminal prosecution and/or conviction.
13. Residents are not required to prebook before they visit Footscray and Thames Road Reuse and recycling centres. However, waiting times may apply at busy periods (weekends and bank holidays).
14. Any residents allowances are for the period between 1 April to 31 March.
15. Residents arriving in cars will be allowed on site; trailers of up to 1 meter in length will also be allowed.
16. The walking in of waste from a restricted vehicle is not permitted and enforcement action will be taken.
17. Vehicles which have been refused access to site but access the site to deposit waste will be considered to be fly tipping and appropriate enforcement action will be taken which may lead to a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued, prosecution or conviction. This also applies to any waste deposited outside the site. CCTV is in operation on site and Bexley’s enviro-crime officers can use the evidence from CCTV to actively enforce against illegal dumping of waste.
18. During normal site opening hours sites may be closed for a short period of time for operational and health and safety reasons.
19. The annual weight allowance for residents arriving in vans at Thames Road Transfer station will be reduced from 500kg to 250kg from 1 September 2023.
20. We will continue to charge commercial users for the disposal of large volumes of construction waste as per agreed annual fees and charges.
21. Those residents who have reached their annual weight allowance or are physically unable to visit the site for medical reasons will need to complete an exemption request form in advance on the Council’s website for a Council officer to consider for approval of an exemption request for additional weight allowance or to allow someone else to deposit items on their behalf.
22. The decision-making process will normally take up to 5 working days. Reasons for additional weight allowance can include residents moving houses, death in the family or any events that may have resulted in an accumulation of waste outside of the resident’s control (for example, a natural event such as flooding). Evidence will be requested from residents and the evidence must be provided by residents applying for an exemption before a decision is made by the officer on whether to grant an additional weight allowance or not. The decision of the manager will be final and there is no appeal process.
23. CCTV cameras are in operation on site for staff and customers safety. Staff on site are equipped with body worn cameras which can be activated in an event of an incident.
24. The Reuse and Recycling Centres Terms and Conditions are valid at the time of publication and may be subject to change or review.