Free weekly food waste caddies start week of 17 August 2026. Grey, green and brown bin rules, the £35 garden waste charge, bulky prices, and the tip's booking rule.

North Tyneside runs bins on a system that catches people out when they move here, because the colours are the other way round from most of England. The grey bin is your recycling. The green bin is your general rubbish. Only the brown bin, garden waste, matches what you would expect, and it is the one you have to pay for.

This page covers what goes where, what the extras cost this year, and the things the council’s own pages split across five separate URLs. Every figure below comes from North Tyneside Council and is linked to the page it came from.

The date that matters right now: food waste, week of 17 August

North Tyneside’s free weekly food waste collection begins its phased rollout in the week commencing 17 August 2026, with roughly 32,000 households in phase one. This is the Simpler Recycling reform, which the council is legally required to introduce (North Tyneside Council, food waste).

What phase one households get:

  • a 5 litre kitchen caddy for the worktop or a cupboard
  • a 23 litre kerbside caddy with a sealable, lockable lid
  • a starter supply of liners, and liners are allowed
  • flats and communal properties get the 5 litre caddy plus a shared 140 or 240 litre bin in the communal store

You do not sign up. Households in each phase are written to in advance, and food waste is collected weekly on your existing collection day, so your day does not change. There is an opt out if you do not want the service. All food goes in, including bones, shells, peelings and tea bags, but no packaging, no liquid fat or oil, no kitchen roll, no pet waste and no garden waste. It goes to anaerobic digestion for energy and compost.

The council has not published which four wards are in phase one. If you are not written to, you are in a later phase; the council says phase two is borough wide but has not given a date.

Which bin, and what goes in it

Rubbish and recycling are both collected once a fortnight, on the same day but at different times of day. Collection days across the borough run Tuesday to Friday, so nothing is collected on a Monday (what goes in your household waste bin).

Grey bin, recycling. Cardboard flattened, paper, magazines, junk mail, envelopes, shredded paper in a bag, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, drinks cans and food tins, Tetra Pak cartons and aerosols. There is a caddy in the top of the bin for glass bottles and jars, and the caddy must stay in the bin or the bin will not be emptied. Not accepted: black plastic, plastic film and wrappers, hard plastics, textiles, polystyrene, batteries or window glass. Put rubbish in it and it will be left (what goes in your recycling bin).

Green bin, general rubbish. Everything that cannot be recycled. No side bags: the crews take what is in the bin and nothing else, and an overfilled bin cannot be lifted by the vehicle.

Brown bin, garden waste. Grass, small prunings, leaves, weeds, dead flowers and house plants, loose and never bagged. No soil, turf, rubble, plant pots, tree trunks or food waste (what goes in your garden waste bin).

Find your own collection dates by postcode on the council’s bin collection lookup.

Put it out by 6.30am, and not before the night before

Bins must be at the kerbside by 6.30am on collection day, and you should not put them out earlier than the evening before. Brown bins go in the same place you would normally leave the green one.

Bank holidays: nothing changes except at Christmas

This is where North Tyneside is genuinely simpler than most councils, and it is worth knowing because it saves you checking. The council’s own wording: collections are not affected by bank holidays except at Christmas and New Year. So the August, spring and Easter bank holidays do not move your day.

The Christmas and New Year schedule for 2026 has not been published yet. The council normally posts it in December, and when it appears we will carry the Whitley Bay dates here.

Garden waste: £35 a year, and the season is nearly over

Garden waste is a paid subscription: £35 for the 2026 season, charged per bin, not per household. A second brown bin is another £35 (garden waste FAQs).

The details that matter:

  • The season runs March to November, a maximum of 18 fortnightly collections. There are no winter collections at all, and never have been.
  • To get the full season you had to pay by 20 February 2026. Sign up now and you get the collections that are left, at the same £35, with the sticker and calendar posted within four weeks. The council is explicit that the price is not reduced for signing up late.
  • No concessionary discounts. No exception for pensioners or anyone else.
  • You can cancel within 14 days of paying and not after. No refunds if you move, inside or outside the borough.
  • A replacement brown bin costs £25 if yours is lost, stolen or damaged, unless the crew damaged it.
  • You can share a subscription with a neighbour, as long as everything fits in one bin.
  • Keep the bin even if you do not subscribe. The council asks you to hold on to it, and there is no charge to order one once you have paid.

Free alternatives: take garden waste to the tip at no charge, or compost at home with the council’s subsidised composter offer. The council says its £35 is the lowest charge in the region.

Bulky waste: the price depends on what, not how many trips

Book on 0345 2000 103. Prices from the bulky waste collection page:

What you have Cost
Large loads and heavy items: piano, bathroom suite, garage door, dismantled shed, large trampoline £55 per item
Large items: armchair, sofa, divan base, mattress, boiler, radiator, washing machine £15 per item
Small items, up to six: vacuum, dining chair, microwave, child’s bike, bagged garden rubbish £15
Small items, seven to 12 £30
Small items, 13 to 18 £45
Small items, more than 18 £55

The council will not take bricks, block paving, flagstones, gravel, plasterboard, rubble, soil, tiles, windows or glass doors at any price. Mixed or undefined loads may need an inspection first, which takes up to seven days.

Two things worth doing before you pay:

  • Council tenants get two free bulky collections a year.
  • If the furniture is clean, undamaged and genuinely reusable, Renew North Tyneside may collect it free. It is run by the council with SUEZ and North Tyneside Big Local. Email recycle@northtyneside.gov.uk with photos.

Cover anything fabric if you leave it out, or rain makes it too heavy to lift. Scrap collectors sometimes take items before the crew arrives and there is no refund unless you cancel before noon the day before.

Missed collection: wait one morning, then report

Crews work until 5pm, so a bin still out at teatime is not necessarily missed. If an area is missed, the council attempts it early the following morning. Report it only if it is still there the morning after your usual day, using the council’s missed bin form.

The tip: Wallsend Road, and you must book

The Household Waste Recycling Centre is on Wallsend Road, North Shields, NE29 7SH. It opens 8am to 8pm, every day except Christmas Day (site opening times).

Everyone needs an appointment, including Blue Badge holders. The council kept the booking system introduced during the pandemic because it stops traffic backing up onto the roundabout outside. Book through the HWRC pages.

Vehicles banned from the site: anything over 2m high, over 6m long, over 3.5 tonnes, any flat bed, and trailers over 3m including the tow bar.

Most household waste is free. DIY waste is charged once you bring more than two 50 litre bags, or a single item bigger than 2m x 75cm x 70cm (charges at the tip):

  • £2 for a bag of loose material, or a sheet of plasterboard
  • £12 for a fully loaded hatchback or family car
  • £20 for a trailer under 1.5m
  • £40 for a trailer over 1.5m, plus £10 for every 30cm up to the 3m limit
  • £80 for a transit van full

No cash is taken on site. Card only. The DIY concession only applies if the waste is from your own home and you did the work yourself; if you paid a tradesperson, it is their waste and they cannot bring it here either, even with you in the van.

Fridges and freezers are not being accepted at the moment. A national backlog at the specialist plants that strip refrigerant gases and foam has forced North Tyneside to suspend them, with no restart date given. Do not leave one outside, which counts as fly tipping; check whether the retailer delivering your new one will take the old one (full notice and FAQs).