Tonbridge and Malling has not published its Christmas 2026 bin dates. Last year every round from Christmas Day slipped by a day or two until 12 January. Here is the pattern.
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council has not yet published its Christmas and New Year bin collection dates for 2026/27. We checked on 24 September: the council’s Christmas collections page has been taken down since last winter and its collection updates page lists every service as running to the normal schedule.
The dates will come. The council follows the same shape every year, and the calendar for 2026 makes the disruption easy to predict.
The quick answer
- Nothing changes until Christmas Day. In each of the last three years the council ran every round on time up to and including the day before Christmas Day.
- From Christmas Day, every round slips by one or two days for about two and a half weeks, with some collections moved to Saturdays to catch up.
- Bins go out by 6am on the revised day, not the usual time.
- Normal service resumed on Monday 12 January last year. Expect Monday 11 January 2027 or the week after this time.
Last year’s dates, and why they are only a guide
The most recent arrangement the council published was for Christmas 2025. These are not this year’s dates. They are here because the shape repeats, and because they tell you how late your bin is likely to be.
The council said collections would run to schedule up to and including Wednesday 24 December 2025, change from Thursday 25 December, and be back to normal from Monday 12 January 2026. Clinical waste collections stayed on their usual Tuesdays throughout (Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, archived 13 December 2025).
| Usual collection day | Collected on |
|---|---|
| Monday 22 December | No change |
| Tuesday 23 December | No change |
| Wednesday 24 December | No change |
| Thursday 25 December | Saturday 27 December |
| Friday 26 December | Monday 29 December |
| Monday 29 December | Tuesday 30 December |
| Tuesday 30 December | Wednesday 31 December |
| Wednesday 31 December | Friday 2 January |
| Thursday 1 January | Saturday 3 January |
| Friday 2 January | Monday 5 January |
| Monday 5 January | Tuesday 6 January |
| Tuesday 6 January | Wednesday 7 January |
| Wednesday 7 January | Thursday 8 January |
| Thursday 8 January | Friday 9 January |
| Friday 9 January | Saturday 10 January |
| Monday 12 January | Normal service resumes |
Garden waste followed the same revised dates as rubbish and recycling. The council did not suspend the subscription service over Christmas, which some neighbouring councils do.
The same shape held in 2023, when Christmas Day fell on a Monday. Every round from 25 December slipped by two days, then by one, and normal service resumed on Monday 15 January 2024, a full three weeks after the first missed day (council page, archived 8 December 2023).
Why 2026 will be awkward
The bank holidays fall on Friday 25 December, Monday 28 December (the substitute for Boxing Day, which is a Saturday) and Friday 1 January 2027 (GOV.UK).
That gives the crews two lost Fridays and a lost Monday inside eight days. Friday rounds will be the ones pushed furthest; if your usual day is Friday, expect both your Christmas week and New Year week collections to move to the following Monday or later. Monday rounds lose 28 December as well.
When the council will publish
The council’s Christmas page was live by 13 December in 2025 and by 8 December in 2023. It also posts the dates on its social accounts and through the My TMBC app, which the updates page says will notify you of changes. This page will carry the 2026 table the day it appears.
For the day-to-day rules, what goes in which bin and the £66 garden waste charge, see Tonbridge bin collection days. For the tips over Christmas, the nearest of which are outside the borough, see tip opening times. Trains over the holiday are covered in Christmas train times.
Still to be confirmed
- The 2026/27 revised collection table: expected from the council in early to mid December.
- Whether any round moves to Saturday 2 January as well as Saturday 9 January.
- The date normal service resumes: on the last two years’ pattern, Monday 11 or Monday 18 January 2027.
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