Hemel Hempstead Christmas Bins: 2026 Dates Not Out Yet

Dacorum Borough Council has not yet published its Christmas and New Year 2026 bin collection dates. Its collection calendar page, checked on 25 September, still carries only the August bank holiday notice (Dacorum Borough Council). This page sets out what the council did the last time the holidays fell on the same weekdays as this year, and it will be updated with the real table the day it appears.

The quick answer

• The 2026 dates are not out. In past years Dacorum has posted its festive table on the collection calendar page by early November or early December.
• Christmas Day and New Year’s Day 2026 fall on a Friday, exactly as in 2020. That year, collections in Christmas week moved one or two days earlier, and the two weeks after moved one to three days later.
• Check your own address on the council’s bin collection checker before putting bins out, and sign up for MyDacorum reminders.

Why 2020 is the year to look at

The bank holidays in 2026 land on Friday 25 December (Christmas Day), Monday 28 December (the substitute Boxing Day, because the 26th is a Saturday) and Friday 1 January 2027. The last time that happened was 2020 to 2021, and Dacorum’s collection calendar page from December 2020 still survives in the Internet Archive (Dacorum Borough Council, archived 14 December 2020).

This is what the council published that year. It is a precedent, not the 2026 schedule.

The weekdays in that table are the same weekdays as December 2026 and January 2027, so if Dacorum repeats the pattern, a household on a Monday round would put its bin out on Saturday 19 December 2026. Nobody should act on that until the council confirms it.

The council does not always pull collections forward. When Christmas Day fell on a Monday in 2023, it moved nothing early: Monday rounds went on Saturday 23 December and every other round that week and the next ran one day late (Dacorum Borough Council, archived December 2023). In 2024, when Christmas fell on a Wednesday, the council’s own post on X told Thursday and Friday households that their bins would be picked up one day later that week (Dacorum Council on X, 26 December 2024).

When the 2026 table should appear

The 2020 table was already on the council’s calendar page on 9 November 2020, and the 2023 table was there by 2 December 2023 (both from Internet Archive captures of the same page). Dacorum also posts a “Christmas and New Year service changes” news item in mid December; the 2023 version went up on 15 December (Dacorum Borough Council, archived). The 2025 version has since been taken down.

We will check the calendar page from the start of November and replace the precedent table with the confirmed 2026 dates.

Which bin goes out

Dacorum collects the blue-lidded recycling bin and the grey rubbish bin on alternate weeks, and the Christmas tables name which bin each revised day is for. Your own fortnightly pattern is on the bin collection checker, and our Hemel Hempstead bin collection days page covers what goes in which bin.

Christmas wrapping paper goes in the blue-lidded bin only if it has no glitter or 3D decorations, and the same goes for cards. Aluminium foil, mince pie cases and empty aerosols can go in; gift bows, ribbon, tinsel, polystyrene and broken fairy lights cannot (Dacorum Christmas recycling guide, archived January 2024).

Real Christmas trees

Dacorum runs one real Christmas tree recycling day each January. In 2024 it was Sunday 7 January, with crews taking trees from cars at three drop-off points:

• Cupid Green Depot, Redbourn Road, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 7BA, 8am to 3pm
• Canal Fields, Broadwater, Berkhamsted, HP4 2AL, 8am to 3pm
• Tring Garden Centre, Bulbourne Road, Tring, HP23 5HF, 9.30am to 4pm

Bags of chippings were handed out to take home (Dacorum Christmas recycling guide, archived January 2024). The council’s own Facebook post for the most recent day named Sunday 4 January and Cupid Green Depot (Dacorum Borough Council on Facebook). The January 2027 date has not been announced.

A tree can also go to either household recycling centre. Trees left at the small neighbourhood recycling sites count as fly-tipping.

The tip over Christmas

Both Hertfordshire County Council recycling centres that serve the borough are open on every bank holiday except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Hemel Hempstead (Eastman Way) is shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Berkhamsted (Northbridge Road) on Thursdays and Fridays, and you now need a free ePass to get in (Hertfordshire County Council). Full hours and the ePass rules are on our Hemel Hempstead tip opening times page.

Still to be confirmed

• The 2026 to 2027 revised collection table: expected on Dacorum’s calendar page in November, and in a council news item in mid December.
• The January 2027 Christmas tree recycling day: date and drop-off points.
• Whether the recycling centres close on Monday 28 December, the substitute Boxing Day, as well as on the 26th.

Elsewhere on Hemel Hempstead Live

• Christmas and New Year travel from Hemel Hempstead: engineering works, last trains and buses.
• Parking in Hemel Hempstead: every council tariff.
• Roadworks and travel: this week’s closures.

Sources

• Dacorum Borough Council: When are my bins collected, checked 25 September 2026. Source for the absence of a 2026 festive table.
• The same page archived on 14 December 2020 and on 13 December 2023. Source for the 2020 and 2023 tables and publication timing.
• Dacorum Council on X, 26 December 2024. Source for the 2024 Thursday and Friday change.
• Dacorum Christmas recycling guide, archived January 2024. Source for the tree day locations and what can be recycled.
• Hertfordshire County Council recycling centre pages. Source for opening days and the Christmas closures.