No Haringey collections on a bank holiday Monday, so the whole week slides to Tuesday-Saturday. Bin colours, the 6am rule, garden waste at £90 a year.

Haringey’s own tool will give you one date and nothing else. It will not tell you what happens on a bank holiday, what the brown bin costs, or why the black bin on your estate is the recycling one. This page covers the rest.

Everything below is Haringey Council and its contractor Veolia, checked on 24 August 2026.

Which bin is which

Haringey does not use one colour scheme. It uses two, and they contradict each other depending on whether you live in a house or a block.

What it holds If you live in a house If you live on an estate or in a block
Non-recyclable waste Black wheelie bin Large silver wheelie bin
Recycling Green-lid or all-green wheelie bin, or green sacks Large black wheelie bin
Food waste Green outdoor bin, with a small black or brown caddy for the kitchen Communal black or brown food bin, or a black bin with a brown lid
Garden waste Brown wheelie bin (paid subscription) Not provided

That is the trap worth knowing. At a house, black means rubbish. On an estate, a large black bin is the recycling. The council sets both out on its types of rubbish and recycling bin pages, but never side by side.

Colour key to Haringey's bins, showing that a large black bin on an estate is for recycling while a black bin at a house is for rubbish

How often each one is collected

  • Non-recyclable waste: fortnightly. Veolia says kerbside properties have been on a fortnightly refuse collection since 2012.
  • Recycling: weekly.
  • Food waste: weekly.
  • Garden waste: weekly, if you subscribe.

Look up your own day with the council’s collection day finder. It takes a postcode and an address, and it is the only place that will give you a date.

Bank holidays: the whole week moves

This is the answer people come looking for, and Haringey’s own service pages do not carry it. Veolia does, on its Haringey refuse page:

  • There are no collections at all on a bank holiday Monday or Friday.
  • Your collection happens one day later than usual.
  • If the bank holiday is a Monday, the whole week shifts: collections run Tuesday to Saturday.
  • If it is a Friday, only Friday collections are affected, and they move to the Saturday.

So for the summer bank holiday on Monday 31 August 2026, a Monday round moves to Tuesday 1 September, a Tuesday round to Wednesday, and so on to a Friday round landing on Saturday 5 September.

The same one-day-later rule is what applies over Christmas and Easter. Check the collection day finder in the week itself, because it shows the actual dates rather than the rule.

Getting your bin emptied

Haringey will collect your bin if it is out by 6am on your collection day, with the lid shut and sacks tied, visible and reachable at the front of the property, and on your boundary rather than on the pavement. Broken glass has to be wrapped in newspaper.

It may refuse the bin if it is too heavy, overflowing so the lid will not close, or contaminated with the wrong items.

If you have scaffolding in the front garden, you can ask Veolia for permission to put the bins out on the pavement for up to six weeks.

What goes in each bin

Recycling (all in one bin, glass included):

  • paper and cardboard, including shredded paper
  • glass bottles and jars
  • food tins, drink cans and aerosols
  • plastic bottles
  • food and drink cartons, including Tetra Paks
  • plastic food trays and containers such as yoghurt pots

No black sacks, and no plastic wrapping, film or crisp packets.

Non-recyclable waste: clingfilm, cellophane, crisp packets, sanitary products, polystyrene, wrapped broken glass, dog mess and cat litter, and non-reusable nappies.

Food waste: fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and bones, teabags and coffee grounds, bread, pasta and rice, eggs and dairy, leftovers and pet food. No bag is needed, though compostable liners are allowed.

Garden waste: flowers and house plants, grass cuttings, hedge clippings, leaves, plants, prunings, twigs and weeds, plus small branches no thicker than 2cm. Not food, not Japanese knotweed, not plastic pots or trays, not soil, sand, rubble or turf.

Flats above shops have a timed collection, not a bin day

If you live above a shop on the Broadway or Tottenham Lane, you do not have a collection day. You have a one-hour window, twice a day, and putting rubbish out outside it can earn you a fixed penalty notice.

The council’s timed collections schedule sets the windows street by street. For the N8 streets:

Street Put out in the morning Put out at night
The Broadway, Crouch End Hill, Crouch Hill, Park Road, Broadway Parade, Tottenham Lane 11am to 12 noon 9.30pm to 11pm
High Street N8, Church Lane, Middle Lane, Priory Road, Weston Park 10am to 11am 9.30pm to 11pm (Weston Park has an afternoon slot instead, 4pm to 5pm)
Ferme Park Road, Wightman Road, Turnpike Lane 9am to 10am Ferme Park Road 4.30pm to 5.30pm, Wightman Road 2pm to 3pm, Turnpike Lane 9.30pm to 11pm

Muswell Hill Broadway, Fortis Green Road and Colney Hatch Lane are all noon to 1pm in the morning. Highgate High Street, Haringey side only, is the same. Blocks of flats, gated developments and mews may have their own arrangement, agreed directly with Veolia on 020 8885 7700.

That schedule is the council’s current published one, and it is dated March 2023. Ring Veolia before relying on it if your street is not listed.

Garden waste costs £90 a year

Haringey charges for garden waste, and the money buys a weekly collection.

  • £90 a year for a 240 litre brown wheeled bin.
  • £67.50 a year for a 140 litre bin, or for a supply of 60 biodegradable sacks holding about the same.

Those are the prices published by both the council and Veolia. Neither page labels them with a year, so check before you pay.

The catch is the service year. Subscriptions run from 1 April to 31 March and are charged in full whenever you join, so signing up in October costs the same £90 as signing up in April and expires on the same date. You cannot leave extra waste beside the bin.

If you would rather not pay, garden waste is taken free at the recycling centre, and it can also go on a one-off bulky collection.

Bulky waste starts at £20

Booked through Veolia, either online through the waste and recycling site or on 020 8885 7700.

Items Cost
1 to 4 £20
5 £30
6 £40
7 £50
8 £60
9 £70
10 (the maximum) £80

Items have to be out by 6.30am, at street level outside the front boundary, visible from the road, and covered if they are fabric.

One thing to expect. Upholstered furniture, cushions, bean bags, pushchairs and child car seats contain persistent organic pollutants and now have to travel on separate vehicles. The council says those items may be collected a day later than the rest of your booking.

Haringey will not take rubble, soil, tyres, gas cylinders, car batteries, pianos, tree trunks, or anything from a renovation, including kitchen units, worktops, external doors and windows.

Missed collection: two working days

Veolia’s rule is to report it within two working days of your scheduled collection day. Report it through the waste and recycling site or on 020 8885 7700.

Before you do, the council suggests checking whether the crew left a contamination tag on the bin, and whether the day itself has moved for a bank holiday.

The recycling centre is on Western Road

Haringey has one, in Wood Green, and it is free with no permit and no booking for a car.

  • Western Road Reuse and Recycling Centre, Western Road, London N22 6XJ.
  • Open 9am to 4pm, seven days a week.
  • Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
  • 020 7464 2225.

The access rule matters more than the address. You can only enter from Coburg Road, turning left off Western Road. You cannot turn right into the site. Vans and trailers need a booking made in advance through the council’s form.

The council’s older printed guide gives the postcode as N22 6UG. The live page says N22 6XJ. Use the live one.

Haringey residents can also use the Edmonton EcoPark centre on Lee Park Way, and the other North London Waste Authority sites.

Smaller things, closer to home

You do not need Wood Green for most of it.

  • Any Haringey library takes textiles, small electricals, batteries, lightbulbs and keys.
  • Book recycling bins on Tottenham Lane and Park Road N8, and on Colney Hatch Lane and North Hill.
  • Clothing banks at 40 Muswell Hill Road and 302 Park Road, among others.
  • Electrical bring banks at Cranley Gardens, Colney Hatch Lane and outside Alexandra Park Library.
  • Free doorstep collections of textiles through TRAID, and of small electricals through Veolia.

The council keeps the full list, filterable by area, on its reuse and recycling centres, banks and donations directory.

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