During the Christmas and New Year period there will be changes to the regular bin collection days by Dorset Council.

As a general rule, between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, your collection day will be the day after your current day.

The service will collect up to two extra sacks of rubbish beside your bin on the first rubbish collection after Christmas Day, whilst extra recycling, including glass and food, will be collected on your recycling collection day, provided it has been separated correctly and placed in a suitable sturdy container (no bags or cardboard boxes) that can be easily lifted by one person.

No garden waste collections will take place from Christmas Eve until Monday 9 January, and household recycling centres in East Dorset are open from 9am to 4pm daily, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Here’s the full table of changes for Dorset:

Christmas trees

Dorset Council does not collect Christmas trees of any kind with rubbish or recycling at the kerbside.

You can recycle your real Christmas tree by:

• home composting it
• cutting it up and placing it in your garden waste bin
• taking it to a household recycling centre
• booking a Christmas tree collection with a Dorset-based charity or service:
  • Blandford Young Farmers and Sandbanks Cancer Ward, Poole Hospital – covers the Verwood, Wimborne and Blandford area. To book a collection email Blandfordfc1@hotmail.com or telephone (07730) 398975
  • Diverse Abilities – covers the East Dorset area
  • Lewis-Manning Hospice – covers the Wareham, Portland, Swanage and East Dorset area
  • Weldmar Hospice – covers all Dorset Council areas apart from Wareham, Swanage and East Dorset
  • Dorset Mind – covers Swanage, Wareham, Wimborne, Verwood, Ringwood and Ferndown