Black bins go three-weekly in spring 2027. Northampton collects on every 2026 bank holiday, garden waste is now £69, and missed bins get two working days.
Type a postcode into West Northamptonshire Council’s lookup and it gives you one date. It does not tell you three things you probably want to know:
- your black bin is moving to a three-weekly cycle in 2027
- Northampton was the only part of the district whose bins ran on Boxing Day last Christmas
- batteries go on a different bin here than they do in Daventry
This page collects the whole thing in one place, for the Northampton area of West Northamptonshire Council. Every figure below is taken from the council’s own pages and its own collection calendars, checked on 2 September 2026.
The big change: black bins every three weeks from spring 2027
West Northamptonshire’s Cabinet agreed on 5 May 2026 to harmonise black bin collections across the district. Properties in Northampton and South Northamptonshire that have their own wheeled bins will move from fortnightly to three-weekly general waste collections. The change takes effect from spring 2027.
The council calls the new pattern 1, 2, 3 +:
- food waste collected weekly
- recycling collected every two weeks
- general waste collected every three weeks
- garden waste every two weeks, if you subscribe
Daventry-area homes have been on three-weekly black bins since 2018, so nothing changes for them. Two groups in Northampton are also unaffected: households on a sack collection, which stays weekly, and flats with communal bin stores. If you are registered for the pull out and return or assisted collection service, that carries on as it is.
The council warns that your collection day may change when the new rounds are introduced, and says it will write to households nearer the time.
What goes out, and how often, in Northampton
Northampton is split between wheeled bin properties and sack properties, and the two get a different service.
If you have wheeled bins, you get a black bin for general waste every two weeks, a blue-lidded recycling bin on the alternate week, and a food caddy every week. Only one black bin per household is emptied, and no side waste is allowed. If the lid will not close, the crew will not empty it and the council will refuse a missed collection report.
If you have sacks, collections are weekly. Each household without a wheeled bin gets two black sacks a week, plus clear recycling sacks and recycling boxes on the same day.
Extra recycling is allowed. Put it in clear bags, never black ones, and leave it beside your bin or sack.
Batteries and small electrical items are the local trap. In Northampton you put them in a bag on top of your recycling bin or clear sack. In the former Daventry area they go on top of the black bin, and in South Northamptonshire either will do. That split is set out in the council’s festive collections notice and repeated on the printed calendars.
Vapes go in no bin at all. Take them back to the retailer or to a recycling centre.
Sack deliveries
Black sack deliveries across Northampton finished in August 2026, and the council says the next delivery is March 2027. It is no longer accepting requests for missing sacks. Clear recycling sack deliveries begin from September 2026. If you have moved in within the last four weeks and the previous occupant left nothing behind, the council will deliver enough sacks to tide you over.
Bank holidays: Northampton collects as normal
The council’s 2026 Northampton collection calendars flag exactly one change in the whole year, and it is at Christmas. Every other bank holiday week is printed as an ordinary collection week, with no note against it:
- Good Friday, 3 April
- Easter Monday, 6 April
- the early May bank holiday, Monday 4 May
- the spring bank holiday, Monday 25 May
- the summer bank holiday, Monday 31 August
The calendars for both Northampton rounds say plainly: “Your collection day has not changed.”
Nor has the council issued a bank holiday collection notice at any point this year. Its news feed carries one waste timing announcement, the December festive release.
Both Northampton recycling centres are also open on bank holidays.
Christmas: Northampton lost one day, the rest of the district lost three
Last Christmas the three parts of West Northamptonshire were treated differently, because three different operators run the rounds. Northampton is collected by Veolia, the Daventry area by West Northamptonshire Norse, and South Northamptonshire by the council’s own in-house crews.
The council’s December 2025 notice set out the changes:
- Northampton: only the Thursday 25 December round moved, to Saturday 27 December. Boxing Day and New Year’s Day collections went ahead as normal.
- Daventry area: 25 December moved to Saturday 27 December, 26 December to Sunday 28 December, and 1 January to Saturday 3 January.
- South Northamptonshire: 25 December moved to Saturday 27 December, 26 December to Monday 29 December, and 1 January to Saturday 3 January.
Three other things applied district-wide. Garden waste was suspended from Monday 22 December to Sunday 4 January. Real Christmas trees were collected from Monday 5 January to Friday 16 January on the normal garden waste round, and you did not need a garden waste subscription to have one taken. Trees over 6ft had to be cut in half. Food waste bins were collected on the usual weekly schedule throughout.
This year the dates fall differently. Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday, Boxing Day a Saturday, and New Year’s Day 2027 a Friday. The council has not yet published its 2026 festive arrangements, so do not assume last year’s pattern. We will update this page when it does.
Garden waste: £69, up 15 per cent
The garden waste service is optional and chargeable. The 2026/27 subscription is £69 per bin, running from the start of April 2026 to the end of March 2027. The council puts that at £2.76 per collection.
That is up from £60 in 2025/26, a rise of £9, or 15 per cent. The council attributes it to inflation and operating costs.
Points worth knowing before you pay:
- the price does not change if you join late in the year, and there is no pro-rata option
- there are no concessions, including for people on benefits
- a second bin is another full £69, with no discount
- you may share a bin with a neighbour, and the council will not get involved in the arrangement
- collections are fortnightly, with one collection missed at Christmas
- sack properties can subscribe too, at the same price, but must supply their own sacks, may present up to 10 sacks per collection, and get 25 bookable collections per subscription
Cardboard, soil, plant pots, large logs and pet waste will get your bin left behind. So will a bin the crew cannot lift.
If you would rather not pay, garden waste is free at the recycling centres, and the council runs a discounted home composter offer through Get Composting.
Bulky waste: £20 for one item
Bulky collections are pre-booked and non-refundable. The charges are:
| Items | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1 item | £20 |
| 2 to 3 items | £35 |
| 4 to 6 items | £55 |
The counting rules matter more than the headline price. A three-piece suite counts as three items. A bedstead and mattress counts as two. A divan base, mattress and headboard counts as three. Four dining chairs count as one item, and so do four garden chairs. A rolled carpet is one item per 4ft roll, and an unrolled carpet will not be collected at all.
Northampton readers should note one restriction the council’s list buries. Pianos, electric organs and satellite dishes are collected only in South Northamptonshire. If you are in Northampton, they are a recycling centre job.
Items must be at the kerbside by 6:30am on the day. Several charities will take reusable furniture free, including Spencer Contact, the British Heart Foundation and the Salvation Army, but upholstered items need an intact fire label.
Missed collections: you have two working days
Do not report a missed bin before 4:30pm on the collection day, because separate lorries come for each waste stream and a full lorry leaves to tip and comes back. After that, you have two working days. The council states that a report made later than that will not be collected.
Before you report, check four things:
- the bin was out by 6:30am
- it was visible at the kerbside
- the lid was closed
- the crew has not left a sticker explaining why it was skipped
Collections run any time between 6:30am and 5pm, so there is no set time to expect them.
The reporting forms are area-specific and, oddly, still sit on the old northampton.gov.uk domain. Northampton residents use form 310. If you live in a flat with communal bins, the council asks you to call 0300 126 7000 instead.
Recycling centres: two in Northampton, both need a booking
You must book before you visit. There is no turn-up option, and an ANPR barrier reads your number plate on arrival.
| Sixfields | Ecton Lane | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | Walter Tull Way, Weedon Road, NN5 5QL | Lower Ecton Lane, Great Billing, NN3 5HQ |
| Open | 10am to 4pm, 7 days | 10am to 4pm, 7 days |
| Bank holidays | Open | Open |
| Booking | Required | Required |
Both close on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and close at 2pm on Christmas Eve. There are four more centres in the district, at Daventry, Towcester, Brixworth and Farthinghoe.
How the booking works:
- slots can be made up to two weeks ahead and up to 30 minutes before you arrive
- a car slot is 15 minutes, so a 10am booking lets you arrive between 10am and 10:15am
- vehicles needing a commercial e-permit get 30 minutes
- the last car slot is 3:45pm, and 3:30pm for e-permit vehicles
- bookings are site-specific and cannot be moved to another centre
- you need your vehicle registration, type and colour to book
DIY waste is capped. A large car gets four free DIY trips every two months. A vehicle on an e-permit gets six free trips for household or DIY waste over 12 months. Household waste trips in a car are not capped. Vans, pick-ups, crew cabs, campervans, horseboxes and anything towing a trailer all need a free e-permit, and no vehicle over 3.5 tonnes is admitted.
A reuse shop operates at Sixfields, run with Cynthia Spencer Hospice, and a second at Farthinghoe.
Also on The Northampton Wire
- Roadworks and travel in Northampton, updated with the council’s live register
- Parking in Northampton, including the car parks that get expensive after three hours
- Northampton council tax bands, with the full A to H table for all 13 parish areas
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