Lewes district bins skip 25 to 28 December 2026 and rounds run a day or two late until mid-January. Every round's dates, tree drop-offs and tip hours.

Lewes District Council will not collect any bins between Christmas Eve and Tuesday 29 December 2026. After that, every round runs one or two days late, including three Saturday collections, until normal days return in the week of Monday 18 January 2027. The dates are already fixed: they are printed in the council’s 2026/27 collection calendars, so there will be no separate Christmas notice to wait for.

The quick answer

  • Last collections before Christmas: Monday 21 to Thursday 24 December for Monday to Thursday rounds; Friday rounds go last on Friday 18 December.
  • No collections from Friday 25 to Monday 28 December. The first collections after Christmas are Tuesday 29 December (Friday rounds) and Wednesday 30 December (Monday rounds).
  • Normal days return Monday 18 January 2027. Put bins out by 6am.

Your dates, by your normal collection day

We read every date below from the council’s calendar files for all ten of the district’s rounds, published through its Environment First collection site. Each round alternates refuse and recycling as it does all year, and food waste goes out at every collection. Your bin simply keeps its place in the order, so if recycling is due on 21 December, refuse is next on 30 December.

Your normal day Last before Christmas After Christmas Back to normal
Monday Mon 21 Dec Wed 30 Dec, Wed 6 Jan, Tue 12 Jan Mon 18 Jan
Tuesday Tue 22 Dec Thu 31 Dec, Thu 7 Jan, Wed 13 Jan Tue 19 Jan
Wednesday Wed 23 Dec Sat 2 Jan, Fri 8 Jan, Thu 14 Jan Wed 20 Jan
Thursday Thu 24 Dec Mon 4 Jan, Sat 9 Jan, Fri 15 Jan Thu 21 Jan
Friday Fri 18 Dec Tue 29 Dec, Tue 5 Jan, Mon 11 Jan, Sat 16 Jan Fri 22 Jan

Thursday rounds are collected as normal on Christmas Eve. Tuesday rounds are collected on New Year’s Eve, two days late.

How long each bin waits

A bin that is normally emptied every 14 days waits between 16 and 18 days over Christmas.

Your normal day Longest wait for one bin Longest wait for food waste
Monday 16 days 9 days (21 to 30 Dec)
Tuesday 16 days 9 days (22 to 31 Dec)
Wednesday 17 days (16 Dec to 2 Jan) 10 days (23 Dec to 2 Jan)
Thursday 18 days (17 Dec to 4 Jan) 11 days (24 Dec to 4 Jan)
Friday 18 days (both bins) 11 days (18 to 29 Dec)

Friday rounds have the hardest Christmas: nothing at all is collected between Friday 18 December and Tuesday 29 December, and both the refuse and the recycling bin wait 18 days. If your recycling is likely to overflow, flatten boxes now and take the extra to the tip (below).

Garden waste stops for four weeks

The paid brown-lid garden waste service has a winter break. The council’s garden waste page says there are “no collections for four weeks over the Christmas period”, from mid-December to mid-January. It does not print the exact dates on that page; check your garden waste calendar. The council says it will still collect real Christmas trees after the break.

Christmas trees

If you pay for garden waste, cut the tree up and put it in the brown-lid bin with all decorations, stands and pots removed.

Otherwise, the council ran free drop-off points last winter. Its Christmas and New Year page listed them for 23 December 2025 to 23 January 2026:

  • Lewes: Brook Street car park
  • Newhaven: Bay Vue car park
  • Peacehaven: Piddinghoe Avenue car park
  • Seaford: Richmond Road car park or The Buckle car park

The 2026 points and dates have not been announced yet. We will add them here when the council updates that page.

If your bin is missed

The council says to leave refuse or food waste out until the following day if it is not collected on the day listed, then report a missed bin within 24 hours if it is still not emptied.

The tips over Christmas

All three tips in the district must be booked in advance. Last Christmas, East Sussex County Council closed them on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, opened Lewes and Newhaven until 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and kept Seaford shut on all five days. The full hours, and what each tip takes, are on our Lewes tip opening times page.

Still to be confirmed

  • Christmas tree drop-off points for 2026: expected on the council’s Christmas page in early December.
  • Tip Christmas hours for 2026: East Sussex County Council’s site pages showed last year’s special dates by 23 December.
  • Garden waste break dates: check your garden waste calendar.

Normal collection days, charges and the rules on what goes in each bin are on our Lewes bin collection days page. For getting around over the holiday, see Lewes Christmas trains and buses, parking in Lewes and roadworks and travel.