How to check your Dartford bin collection day, what goes in the green, grey and brown bins, garden waste costs, bank holiday changes and bulky waste.
Dartford bin collection runs on a system that catches people out when they move here from a neighbouring borough. Your rubbish is emptied every week, your recycling only every other week, and food waste goes in with the general rubbish rather than into a separate caddy. Get those three things straight and the rest is simple. Below is how to find your own collection day, exactly what belongs in each of the three bins, what the garden waste service costs, what happens at bank holidays, and how to book a bulky collection.
How to find your bin collection day
Dartford Borough Council runs a free online checker. You enter your address and it returns your next rubbish, recycling and garden waste dates, and it takes account of bank holidays and temporary changes, so it is the one source worth trusting over any printed calendar.
- Go to the council’s when is my collection day page and use the online collections tool. The same page carries the downloadable Week 1 and Week 2 recycling calendars if you would rather have the pattern on paper.
- Starting from GOV.UK’s rubbish collection day finder simply matches your postcode to Dartford Borough Council and hands you over to the council’s own system.
Whichever bin is due, the deadline is the same. Bins must be at the front boundary of your property by 6am on collection day (refuse collection). In hot weather the council has started rounds as early as 5am, so 6am is a floor rather than a target.
Collections are carried out by the council’s contractor, FCC Environment, which took over the round from Amey in July 2019.
The three bins in Dartford, and what goes in each
| Bin | Size | What it takes | How often | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 180 litres | General rubbish, including food waste | Weekly | Included |
| Grey | 240 litres | All dry recycling, including glass | Fortnightly | Included |
| Brown | 240 litres | Garden waste only | Fortnightly | £53 a year, plus £56 for the bin |
The green bin: general rubbish, collected weekly
Every domestic property in the borough gets a weekly refuse collection, and almost all of them have a 180 litre green wheeled bin. Only one standard bin per household is emptied. If you have no bin, up to four black sacks are collected instead.
What must not go in it: building materials, bulky items such as furniture, hazardous waste, soil and garden waste. The council is no longer permitted to take garden waste as household refuse. Flammable and dangerous items are also barred, specifically batteries, nitrous oxide canisters, vape devices, gas canisters, petrol cans and white spirits. Sharp kitchen utensils should be wrapped before they go in.
If any of that turns up in your bin it counts as contamination. The crew will sticker the bin and leave it, and it is then your job to take the offending item out before the next scheduled collection (refuse collection).
Bins broken through normal wear and tear are replaced free. A bin that goes missing may have to be paid for, and a new one bought from the council costs £52 including VAT.
The grey bin: recycling, collected fortnightly
The 240 litre grey bin takes all your dry recycling in one go, glass included. There is no separate black box any more. The full accepted list, per the council’s what to recycle page, is:
- Paper, including shredded: newspapers, magazines, catalogues, envelopes, directories
- Cardboard: packaging, food boxes, cartons and sleeves, flattened
- Household metal: jar lids and tops, biscuit and sweet tins, empty aerosols, food and drink cans, kitchen foil, aluminium containers
- Household plastic: all plastic bottles, with spray and push-top lids removed
- Plastic pots, tubs and trays: yoghurt pots, margarine and ice cream tubs, fruit punnets, ready meal trays, but not black ones
- Glass: all glass bottles and jars, with their lids
What the council cannot take: food waste, pizza boxes, crisp packets, polystyrene, wood, metal, plant pots, books, clothing and bedding. Batteries are not collected either; supermarkets and high street shops run take-back bins, and there is a battery point at the Civic Centre.
Recycling should go in loose or in clear translucent sacks. Black sacks in the grey bin are treated as contamination. Side waste is allowed, up to three translucent sacks or neatly folded cardboard, left beside the bin rather than across the footpath. The council points out that it can take enforcement action over excessive side waste under sections 33 and 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The reason recycling is fortnightly rather than weekly is one the council states plainly: collecting it every week “would mean double the cost to Council Tax payers and lead to twice as many collection lorries in our streets each week” (recycling information). That is the trade-off behind the bill you pay each year.
Food waste: there is no separate caddy in Dartford
This is the detail that surprises people arriving from Sevenoaks or Bexley. Dartford does not run a separate weekly food waste collection. Food waste goes into the green refuse bin, which is precisely why that bin stays weekly while recycling drops to fortnightly.
Garden waste: a paid subscription
Garden waste is not included in your council tax. It is a subscription service using a brown 240 litre wheeled bin, and nothing is emptied until you have paid.
- £53 a year for the subscription, which runs 1 April to 31 March. Join part way through the year and the price drops on a sliding scale each quarter.
- £56 one-off for the bin itself, which stays the property of the council and is treated as hired rather than sold.
- Collections are fortnightly, starting from 6am, and can take up to 10 working days to begin after a new subscription is paid.
What goes in: grass cuttings, dead flowers, weeds, leaves, plants, foliage, twigs, hedge trimmings and small branches under 50mm. It has to go in loose, not bagged.
What does not: soil, stone and gravel, food, rubble, turf, plant pots, wood, logs, and invasive or poisonous plants including Japanese knotweed, ragwort, giant hogweed, hemlock, rhododendron and yew. A contaminated brown bin is not emptied and the crew will not return for it. Christmas trees are not covered by the subscription either. Full detail is in the council’s garden waste terms and conditions and on the garden waste page.
What it means for you: at £53 a year for roughly 26 collections, the brown bin works out at about £2 a lift. If you only clear the garden twice a year, a couple of runs to a Kent County Council recycling centre will cost you less. If you cut a lawn from March to October, the subscription is the cheaper option, and home composting is cheaper still.
Bank holidays: collections shift back a day
Dartford does not skip bank holiday collections, it moves them. The council’s published pattern is that a Monday round moves to Tuesday, Tuesday to Wednesday, and so on through to a Saturday catch-up, with a longer reshuffle over Christmas and New Year. The council publishes the anticipated dates on its bank holiday collection changes page, and warns that snow, ice and extreme heat can push rounds later still.
That page is not always refreshed straight after a holiday, so treat the online checker as the authority. It builds bank holiday changes in automatically.
Bulky items and missed collections
For anything too big for a bin, the council runs a special collection service: £39.50 for up to 10 items, with extra items at £2 each up to a maximum of four extras. Sofas, beds, wardrobes, tables, chairs, carpets, televisions and washing machines are all covered. Fridges and freezers are not currently accepted because of a national shortage of treatment plant capacity.
Upholstered seating is handled separately. Environment Agency guidance on persistent organic pollutants means armchairs, sofas, sofa beds, futons, bean bags, cushions, dining and office chairs and stools have to be incinerated on their own, so they may be collected on a different date from the rest of your booking (special collections).
If a bin is genuinely missed, report it within 48 hours of your collection day. Outside that window the contractor will not return. The same 48 hour rule applies to garden waste, and no refunds are given for missed garden waste collections.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find my bin collection day in Dartford?
Use the online collections tool on the council’s when is my collection day page and enter your address. It gives your next refuse, recycling and garden waste dates and already accounts for bank holidays. Bins must be out at your front boundary by 6am.
Is bin collection weekly or fortnightly in Dartford?
Both. General rubbish in the green bin is collected weekly. Recycling in the grey bin is collected fortnightly, on alternating weeks. Garden waste in the brown bin, if you subscribe, is also fortnightly.
Does Dartford collect food waste separately?
No. Dartford has no separate food waste caddy. Food waste goes in the green refuse bin, which is why that bin is emptied every week while recycling is fortnightly.
Can I put glass in my recycling bin in Dartford?
Yes. All glass bottles and jars, with their lids, go straight into the grey wheeled bin. The old black recycling box is no longer needed.
How much is garden waste collection in Dartford?
The subscription is £53 a year, plus a one-off £56 for the 240 litre brown bin. The year runs from 1 April, the price reduces on a sliding scale if you join later, and collections are fortnightly.
What happens to bin collections on bank holidays in Dartford?
Collections move back by a day, so Monday becomes Tuesday and the week ends with a Saturday round. Christmas and New Year involve a bigger reshuffle. The online checker builds the changes in, so check there rather than relying on your usual day.
Sources
- Dartford Borough Council, when is my collection day
- Dartford Borough Council, refuse collection
- Dartford Borough Council, recycling information and what to recycle
- Dartford Borough Council, garden waste brown bins and garden waste terms and conditions
- Dartford Borough Council, special collections and bulky household items
- Dartford Borough Council, bank holiday refuse and recycling collection changes
- GOV.UK rubbish collection day finder for Dartford
Charges and rules are those published by Dartford Borough Council and checked in August 2026. Fees are reviewed periodically, so confirm on the council’s own pages before you pay. If you are new to the area, our guides to Dartford council tax bands and parking in Dartford cover the other two bills that catch people out, and Dartford Online carries the day’s local news.
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