Wymondham Bin Collection Days: Christmas 2026 Moves

South Norfolk Council collects rubbish one week and recycling the next. Your bins have to be at the edge of the road by 6.30am, and the crews can arrive any time up to 4pm, so there is no safe time to put them out late. The council recommends the night before.

Everything below is South Norfolk Council’s own information, checked on 31 August 2026. The council shares a website with Broadland District Council, and the two districts run different services, so read only the South Norfolk lines on those pages.

The quick answer

• Rubbish and recycling: fortnightly, alternating. Out by 6.30am.
• Bank holidays: no change. The only moves in the council’s whole 12-month calendar are at Christmas and New Year, and the five revised dates are below.
• Garden waste: £73 a year per brown bin, and it is often collected on a different day from your other bins.
• Food waste: free and weekly, but not everywhere yet. Long Stratton and Poringland started on 27 July 2026. Wymondham, Diss, Loddon and Hethersett still return “Coming Soon”.
• Bulky waste: £61.50 for up to three items.
• The tip at Strayground Lane opens four days a week and you have to book.

Finding your own collection day

Two official routes, both free:

• The My Area lookup on the council’s find your bin collection day page. Select your property and it gives a full forward calendar.
• The South Norfolk Council app. This replaced the old “South Norfolk Bin Collections” app, so delete the old one. The new app also reports missed bins, reports fly-tipping, books bulky waste and sends push notifications about changes.

The council asks everyone to write their house name or number on every bin, in marker or on a sticker, so crews return the right bin to the right house.

Christmas 2026: the only dates that actually move

South Norfolk publishes no standing bank holiday page, which makes this hard to look up. The dates are, however, already in the council’s own collection calendar, tagged with the reason they moved. Checked across 59 addresses on 31 August 2026, the changes are the same on every round:

Two things follow from that table. Collections run later, not earlier, so nothing is missed by putting the bin out on the normal day and leaving it. And the crews work Saturday 2 January, which is not obvious.

Every other bank holiday is collected as normal. The same 12 months of calendar contain no change for the August bank holiday, Good Friday, Easter Monday or either May bank holiday. Bin crews were out in South Norfolk on Monday 31 August 2026 collecting garden waste.

Which bin takes what

The council lists what it will not take in the rubbish bin: garden waste, DIY waste including wood, liquid paint, oils, fertilisers, furniture, hot or loose ash, needles, fluorescent tubes, gas bottles, large electricals, hazardous and clinical waste, and anything from a business. Loose ash, cat litter and vacuum bag contents have to be bagged first or they blow across the road.

Recycling has to be clean, loose and dry, with the lid shut. Nothing in plastic bags or black liners. Glass bottles and jars go in with their lids on, and so do plastic milk, drink and bathroom bottles. Black plastic food trays are accepted here, which many councils still refuse.

The recycling list excludes crisp and sweet packets, pouches, hard plastic toys, polystyrene, nappies, drinking glasses, window and mirror glass, light bulbs, wallpaper and textiles. If any of it is in the bin, the crew will tag the bin and leave it.

Side waste: two bags, sometimes

This is one of the few places where South Norfolk is more generous than its neighbour.

• Rubbish: South Norfolk will take up to two extra bags on occasion. Broadland takes none at all. The bags must fit in your bin, because the crew tips the bin, puts the bags in, and tips it again.
• Recycling: extra is accepted in a clear sack or a cardboard box that fits inside the bin. It must be dry. Wet cardboard is left.
• Either way, if the lorry is near capacity the crew leaves side waste to finish the round, and the council says that decision is final.

If your bin is regularly overfull, a larger recycling bin is free. A larger rubbish bin has qualifying criteria. The standard bin is 240 litres and the council stocks nothing smaller.

Food waste: Wymondham is still waiting

South Norfolk is introducing a free weekly food waste collection, driven by the government’s Simpler Recycling rules. Each household gets a kitchen caddy, a 23 litre outdoor bin and liners, and the food bin is emptied every week on the same day as the other bins by a separate lorry.

The rollout is in two phases, and the second one has slipped.

• The council’s news release of 26 June 2026 said Phase 1 would start week commencing 27 July and Phase 2 week commencing 28 September 2026.
• The service page now says only that Phase 2 is “coming soon” and that the timetable “is currently being reviewed”. The September date has gone.
• The council’s own postcode checker confirms it. On 31 August 2026 it returned a start date of Monday 27 July 2026 for addresses in Long Stratton and Poringland, and “Coming Soon” for four separate Wymondham postcodes and for addresses in Diss, Loddon and Hethersett.

So most of this paper’s area is in Phase 2 with no date. You cannot opt out of the containers when they arrive, though you do not have to use them.

Two practical points from the council’s FAQs. The liners are not compostable, because compostable liners do not break down in anaerobic digestion, and every liner is stripped out before treatment anyway. And when you run low, tie a liner to the handle of the outdoor bin and the crew leaves a fresh roll. A roll is expected to last about five weeks.

Garden waste: £73, and probably a different day

The brown bin is a paid subscription.

• £73 a year per bin, card payment only, and no American Express.
• Join part way through the year and the charge is pro rata.
• You can order as many brown bins as you like.
• Renewing by Direct Debit costs less, though the council does not publish the discounted figure.
• Renewal invoices reach South Norfolk eBilling customers on 17 or 18 February and postal customers between 27 February and 6 March. If nothing has arrived by 10 March, chase it.

Full details are on the garden waste page. Anyone subscribed by 11.59pm on Saturday 31 October 2026 goes into a prize draw with 20 prizes per district, first prize a £100 garden centre voucher, drawn on 2 November.

Two things the council does not spell out, both visible in its own collection calendar:

• The brown bin often has its own day. Plenty of South Norfolk properties have rubbish and recycling on a Tuesday and garden waste on a Friday. Garden waste is also the only stream collected on Mondays.
• The Christmas gap is longer than a fortnight. Across the addresses checked, the last garden collection of 2026 falls between 7 and 15 December, and the next between 4 and 18 January 2027. On the Monday round that is a six-week gap, because two collections in a row fall inside the suspension.

No branch thicker than four inches, no invasive or toxic species such as Japanese knotweed, ragwort, hemlock or Himalayan balsam, and no grass treated with clopyralid or aminopyralid.

When a collection is missed

Report it the same day or the day after. After that the council will not return. That is a much tighter window than most councils allow, and it is the single most useful thing on this page.

Before reporting, check the crew has not already logged a reason. The council will not come back if the bin was not out by 6.30am, was not visible from the road, had its lid raised, was contaminated, was too heavy for one person to move, or was not a bin the council supplied.

Related points worth knowing:

• Replacement bins are free unless the damage was misuse. South Norfolk aims to repair or replace within 10 working days, against five in Broadland.
• Leave a damaged or missed bin out at the collection point. If you take it in, the request is closed unactioned.
• A bin tag almost always means the wrong item is inside. Take it out and the bin is emptied next time.
• A partly emptied bin means the contents stuck. The crews will not return for that either.

Assisted collections are available if nobody able-bodied lives with you and no regular visitor can move the bins, and you are registered disabled, elderly or frail, physically unable to move a bin, or struggle to remember the day because of mental illness. Requests are reviewed within five working days and the whole arrangement is reviewed every two years, with 21 days to return the renewal form.

Bulky waste and free electrical collections

Bulky collections in South Norfolk are charged per booking:

Six items is the maximum, and each item beyond the third adds £7. The council says a reduced fee may apply if you receive relevant benefits, but does not publish the reduced figure, so ask when you book.

Separately, South Norfolk runs a free bookable kerbside collection for small electricals and batteries, funded with £33,000 from the charity Material Focus. The rules are strict:

• One booking per household per month, maximum six bags.
• Items must be smaller than a microwave and fit in a tied carrier bag. Bin liners, black sacks and charity bags are refused.
• Batteries and electricals must be in separate bags, because they go to different places.
• Out on the kerb by 7am on the booked day.
• Book online or on 01508 533830. It is for houses with their own bins, not communal bins, for now.

Never put batteries or vapes in any wheeled bin. They start fires in the lorries.

The tip: Wymondham, and the one that is closing

Recycling centres are run by Norfolk County Council, not South Norfolk. You must book a free 15 minute slot, up to a week ahead, giving the registration of the vehicle you will arrive in. Walking in still needs a booking, and there is a pedestrian option on the form. Bookings can also be made on 0344 800 8020, option 7.

Wymondham Part-time Recycling Centre, Strayground Lane, Wymondham NR18 9NA.

• Open 9am to 4pm on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday only.
• Open on bank holidays, closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
• Takes household waste, garden waste and DIY waste.
• Does not take fridges, freezers, upholstered seating, tyres, plasterboard or trade waste.
• It sits at the end of a single-track lane off the B1172, about half a mile south-west of the traffic lights and immediately after the railway bridge.

Morningthorpe Recycling Centre, Bungay Road, Morningthorpe, Long Stratton NR15 2LJ, is closing permanently on 31 October 2026. Its 25-year lease is expiring and the landowner has confirmed no extension beyond February 2027. Until then it opens 9am to 4pm daily except Wednesdays. The county council names Norwich South, Ipswich Road, Norwich NR4 6FA, off the A140 and A47 junction, as the replacement. Norwich South opens daily except Wednesdays, has a reuse shop you can visit without booking, and takes the things the smaller sites refuse, including fridges, freezers, plasterboard, tyres and upholstered seating.

Norfolk currently accepts fridges and freezers at seven sites only: Caister, Dereham, Hempton, King’s Lynn, Norwich North, Norwich South and Thetford. Wymondham and Morningthorpe are not among them.

What DIY waste costs

DIY waste is legally industrial waste, so the free allowance is capped. You get two 50 litre sacks or one single item per visit, no single item larger than 200cm by 75cm by 70cm, and a maximum of four visits in any four-week period. Waste from a job you paid a tradesperson to do gets no free allowance at all.

Above the allowance, per 100 litres or per item:

Separating your load costs less than a mixed one. Cash is accepted up to £10, above that it is card. Plasterboard is only taken at the seven larger sites.

Sites also sell 40 litre bags of compost at £4.75, 220 litre compost bins at £15 with a second at half price, 26kg bags of gritting salt at £7 and garden waste sacks at £4.

Also on this site

• Wymondham roadworks and travel, including the A11 weekend closure in September
• Parking in Wymondham: where the free hour applies and where it does not
• Wymondham council tax bands for 2026/27
• Wymondham house prices