Bank holidays do not change your Lichfield bin day, only Christmas does. Which bin takes what, garden waste at £42.50, bulky from £20, and both tips' closed days.

Lichfield District Council collects your black bin and your recycling on alternate weeks, and your food waste caddy every single week. Everything has to be at the kerbside by 6am.

The question people actually search for is what happens at a bank holiday. The council answers it in one line, on a page about garden waste rather than anywhere obvious: “All other bank holidays throughout the year will not affect your usual collection day” (Lichfield District Council, garden waste bin days). So Easter, the two May bank holidays and the August bank holiday leave your day alone. Christmas and New Year are the only weeks that move, and they move in both directions.

This page covers the bins, the dates, the two subscription and booking charges, the missed collection window, and the two tips. Every figure below was checked against the council’s own pages on 2 September 2026.

Which bin takes what

Every household gets four containers, and a fifth if you pay for garden waste.

The five Lichfield District Council bins and what goes in each Blue bin: glass, cans and plastics, every two weeks. Blue bag or purple bin: paper and card, every two weeks. Black bin: non-recyclable waste, every two weeks on the opposite week. Food caddy: all food waste, every week. Brown bin: garden waste, every two weeks, subscription only at £42.50 a year. Five containers, three different rhythms Source: Lichfield District Council, guide to bins and what goes in each bin, September 2026. Blue bin Glass, cans, plastic tubs, bottles and trays, foil, aerosols · every 2 weeks Blue bag, or purple bin in rural areas Paper and card only, loose shredded paper allowed · every 2 weeks Black bin Non-recyclable waste, lid shut, no side waste · every 2 weeks, opposite week Food waste caddy All food including meat, bones and peelings · EVERY week Brown garden bin Garden waste only · every 2 weeks, subscription £42.50 a year per bin Graphic by Lichfield Today
The food caddy is the odd one out: it is the only weekly collection.

The blue bin takes glass bottles and jars with their lids, cans, aluminium foil that scrunches, food trays, aerosols and roll-ons, and plastic containers including yoghurt pots and margarine tubs. Wash them first, and put them in loose. The council is blunt about why: recycling bagged up in plastic bin bags has been rejected in bulk by its recycling partners, and rejected loads are incinerated rather than recycled (Lichfield District Council, blue bins).

What does not go in the blue bin catches people out. The list includes:

  • carrier bags, plastic wrappers and bubble wrap
  • cartons, including juice, milk and soup
  • foil that will not stay scrunched, such as crisp packets and pet food pouches
  • rigid plastics: garden furniture, toys, coat hangers, plant pots
  • polystyrene, pyrex and mirrored glass
  • textiles, wallpaper, used tissues and kitchen roll
  • electricals and batteries

The blue bag is for paper and card, and only paper and card. It is emptied on the same fortnight as the blue bin. If you live in a rural part of the district you may have a purple bin instead, and the pattern changes: the council empties your blue bin one fortnight and your purple bin the next (Lichfield District Council, blue bags and purple bins).

Excess cardboard has its own rule, and it is not obvious. Crews tip blue bags into a “service bin” fixed to the lift on the truck, and they will not hand-throw loose card into the back of the wagon. If you have more card than fits, fold it into bundles roughly 40cm by 40cm by 40cm and stack it next to the bag. Do not put it in a plastic bag, because the crew has nowhere to put the bag. Extra blue bags and extra blue bins are free (Lichfield District Council, excess cardboard).

The black bin is now for non-recyclable waste only. Food waste belongs in the caddy. The lid must shut, and side waste will not be taken. You can apply for extra black bin capacity if six or more people live in the house, if five live there and one is under three, if four live there and two are under three, or if a non-hazardous medical condition generates extra packaging (Lichfield District Council, black bins).

The food waste caddy is the newest part of the service. Weekly food waste collections launched across Lichfield district and Tamworth borough under the Government’s Simpler Recycling rules, and every household has been sent a kitchen caddy, an outdoor caddy and enough liners for 52 collections. There is nothing to sign up for. Meat, bones, dairy and cooked leftovers all go in (Lichfield District Council, food waste).

The council does not run a textile or clothing collection. Old clothes have to go to a charity, a collection point or a tip (Lichfield District Council, waste and recycling FAQs).

Finding your own collection day

The council’s bin calendar is a postcode and address lookup at lichfielddc.gov.uk/bincalendar. It runs in the browser rather than as a plain page, so there is no fixed web address for an individual street’s dates. There is also an Alexa skill that reads out your next collection.

Whatever the calendar says, the containers have to be out by 6am.

Bank holidays and Christmas

Ordinary bank holidays do not shift anything in this district. That is unusual: most Staffordshire councils push the whole week forward a day. Lichfield does not, and the council states it plainly on the garden waste page quoted above.

Christmas is different, and it moves in both directions. The council has not yet published its timetable for Christmas 2026, so the dates below are last year’s and are here to show the shape of the change, not to be relied on for this December:

Normal day What happened Actual day
Monday 22 December Two days earlier Saturday 20 December
Tuesday 23 December A day earlier Monday 22 December
Christmas Eve A day earlier Tuesday 23 December
Christmas Day A day earlier Wednesday 24 December
Boxing Day A day later Saturday 27 December
Mon 29 to Wed 31 December No change As normal
New Year’s Day A day later Friday 2 January
Friday 2 January A day later Saturday 3 January

Source: Lichfield District Council, Christmas bin collection changes, which as of 2 September 2026 still carries the 2025 into 2026 dates.

Two points from that page are worth carrying forward. The Monday round is the one that catches people, because “earlier” with no Sunday collections means Saturday. And garden waste stops completely over Christmas and New Year. Last winter the final garden collections ran in the week of 8 December and the service did not restart until the week of 26 January.

Christmas trees go in the brown bin if you subscribe to garden waste, chopped up with the lid closed. If you do not subscribe, take it to a tip and use the green waste container.

Garden waste: £42.50 a year

Garden waste is a paid subscription. The 2026 service costs £42.50 per bin and buys fortnightly collections, up to 23 a year, on the same day as your blue bin (Lichfield District Council, garden waste). The charge is the same whenever you join, because the service runs January to December.

The terms are tighter than most:

  • there are no refunds once a subscription is paid
  • a bin without a valid sticker will not be emptied
  • you can transfer a subscription to another address inside Lichfield district or Tamworth borough free of charge, but leave the stickered bin behind
  • no refund at all if you move out of the two areas
  • a smaller 140-litre brown bin is available if you want a lighter one

Subscribers lost a collection this summer. The council cancelled recycling and garden waste rounds in the week of 22 June 2026 because of extreme heat, and it confirmed it would not return for the missed brown bins. Instead it promised an additional garden waste collection later in the year, on the reasoning that autumn leaf fall is when subscribers need it most (Lichfield District Council, update on recycling, garden waste and missed bins, 25 June 2026). No date for it has been published yet.

Do not put food waste, including peelings, in the brown bin. The council’s garden waste goes to an open-windrow composting facility, which does not reach the temperatures needed to break food waste down safely. Contaminated bins are left until the next scheduled collection.

Bulky and scrap collections: £20 then £9

The council will collect large items from outside your property. The pricing is the same for both services (Lichfield District Council, bulky and scrap collections):

  • £20 for the first item, £9 for each item after that
  • up to four items on a bulky collection, up to two on a scrap metal collection
  • maximum length 190cm (75 inches) either way
  • bulky items must be movable by two people, scrap items by one
  • bookable online up to a month ahead

Bulky covers beds, sofas and furniture. Scrap covers dishwashers, fridges, freezers and sofas with metal mechanisms. Items must be outside before 6am on the day, in the same place as your bins, and crews will not come inside. Payment is non-refundable, so a missed put-out is money gone.

Before booking, the council points to the Lichfield reuse and recycle Facebook group, Freegle, Gumtree and the Lichfield Furniture Transfer Scheme. St Giles Hospice also runs a furniture collection service.

Missed bins: report after 5.30pm, and before midnight the next day

Lichfield runs a live missed streets page, updated as crews return to the depot and always by 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Check it before you report anything, because crews sometimes go back at the end of the day (Lichfield District Council, missed bin collections).

If your street is listed, leave the bin out. The council aims to return the next working day, but says it can take up to three.

If your street is not listed, the reporting window is narrow. Report it no earlier than 5.30pm on your collection day and no later than midnight the following day. Assisted collections are the exception to that deadline.

The council will not come back at all if the bin was out after 6am, was contaminated, was too heavy, or was frozen. Contamination and weight both get a tag left on the bin, and vehicle CCTV is checked on the question of whether the bin was out on time.

Assisted collections are available to anyone who cannot move their bins and has no one aged 16 or over in the house who can. It covers the garden bin too, at no extra charge, if you already have it for the black and blue bins.

The tips: two sites, and they close on opposite days

Both household waste recycling centres in the district are run by Staffordshire County Council, not the district. Neither needs a booking, and there is no charge for cars.

Tip Address Closed Open
Lichfield Witley Drive, Trent Valley Road, WS13 6EU Monday and Tuesday Wed to Fri 9am to 6pm, Sat and Sun 9am to 5pm
Burntwood Ring Road, Chase Terrace, WS7 3JQ Wednesday and Thursday Mon, Tue, Fri 9am to 6pm, Sat and Sun 9am to 5pm

Sources: Lichfield Recycling Centre and Burntwood Recycling Centre.

The two closed pairs do not overlap, so one of the district’s tips is open every day of the week. Those hours are the summer timetable, published as running from 29 March to 24 October 2026. The county has not yet put winter hours on either page.

A car needs no permit and can visit as often as you like. A van, pick-up or a trailer over 1.5 metres needs a permit, and the permit allows 12 visits a year.

Two live restrictions matter more than the hours, and they are on a page most people never find (Staffordshire County Council, recycling centre notices, last updated 1 September 2026):

  • fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers can only be taken to Cannock, Stafford and Leek. Neither Lichfield nor Burntwood can accept them at the moment. If you were planning to drive an old fridge to Witley Drive, book a £20 scrap collection instead.
  • wood is a problem across the whole network, and the county asks you to check before travelling.
  • trade waste is not being accepted at any Staffordshire centre because of capacity.

On the last bank holiday, all 14 Staffordshire recycling centres opened as normal from 9am to 5pm.

Frequently asked questions

Do bin collections change on a bank holiday in Lichfield?

No. The council states that all bank holidays other than Christmas and New Year “will not affect your usual collection day”. Only the Christmas and New Year period moves collections, and it moves some of them earlier and some later.

What time do bins need to be out in Lichfield?

By 6am at the kerbside, in your usual collection spot. A bin put out later than that will not be emptied and the council will not return for it.

How much is garden waste collection in Lichfield?

£42.50 per bin for 2026, for fortnightly collections up to 23 times a year. The price is the same whenever in the year you join, and there are no refunds.

Which Lichfield tip is open on a Monday?

Burntwood, on Ring Road at Chase Terrace, 9am to 6pm. The Lichfield site at Witley Drive is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Where do I take an old fridge in Lichfield?

Not to the Lichfield or Burntwood tips. As of 1 September 2026 Staffordshire can only accept fridges and freezers at Cannock, Stafford and Leek. The council’s own scrap metal collection is £20 for the first item.

Sources

Related: parking in Lichfield, Lichfield council tax bands and roadworks and travel. Charges and opening hours change. Check the council’s own page before you rely on a figure. Checked 2 September 2026.