Chichester District collects on every bank holiday but Christmas, in its own policy. Garden waste is £78 a year, bulky waste £36, and Midhurst tip shuts Tue and Wed.

Monday 31 August is a normal collection day across the Chichester district. So is every other bank holiday in the year. The council’s own Waste and Recycling Collection Policy puts it in one line: “We operate collections on Bank Holidays throughout the year. The exception is during Christmas and New Year.”

That answer is not on any of the council’s service pages. It is on page 6 of a PDF.

Chichester District Council also rolled out weekly food waste collections during 2026, so the district now runs four containers on three different cycles. Checked on 26 August 2026.

The four bins and how often they come

Bin What goes in How often
Grey with an orange lid, 23 litres Food waste Weekly
Black wheeled bin General waste Every two weeks
Burgundy wheeled bin Recycling Every two weeks
Green wheeled bin Garden waste, paid subscription Every two weeks, 25 times a year

The black and burgundy bins alternate, so you put out one or the other each week. The food caddy goes out every week alongside whichever bin is due. All of that comes from the collection policy, sections 2.1 and 2.2.

Wheeled bins come in 140, 240 and 360 litres. Most households are allowed 240 litres of general waste per collection. If five or more people live there and you need more, you can apply for a 360 litre bin, and the council may audit what is in your bin before it agrees.

Find your collection day

Use the council’s own postcode lookup at Check your bin day. One warning it prints in small type: garden waste dates do not appear at all unless there is a live subscription against the address.

The council also publishes a free app that will send a reminder the night before, which is the more useful option if your street is on a rotating cycle.

Food waste: new in 2026

Food collections started rolling out from March 2026 and are now district-wide. Every household should have a 5 litre kitchen caddy and a 23 litre outdoor bin.

Two things about the rollout are worth knowing:

  • The council built completely new rounds for food waste. It warned in January 2026 that collection dates “may also be different to our existing crew rounds”, so your food day is not automatically your bin day.
  • Collected food waste goes to an anaerobic digestion plant in Horsham.

Around a third of the average Chichester district rubbish bin was food waste before the service started, according to Cllr Mark Chilton, the cabinet member for finance and contract services.

Bank holidays and Christmas

Bank holidays are collected as normal. Christmas and New Year are the only changes, and the council publishes those dates each December on its website and in its Initiatives magazine.

The remaining bank holidays this cycle are:

  • Summer bank holiday, Monday 31 August 2026
  • Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026 (dates will change)
  • Boxing Day, Monday 28 December 2026 (dates will change)
  • New Year’s Day, Friday 1 January 2027 (dates will change)

We have not published December dates because the council has not set them yet. Worth knowing how far the disruption reaches, though. In the last published festive schedule, Christmas week slipped by up to three days, New Year week slipped again, and every round was still running a day late in the week after New Year. A Friday round did not get back to Friday until the middle of January.

Two Christmas rules do hold every year. Crews are allowed to take excess waste left beside the black bin on the first scheduled collection after Christmas, which they will not do at any other time of year. And there are no garden waste collections at all over Christmas and New Year.

Garden waste: £78, and the council quotes two prices

The garden recycling service is a paid annual subscription. You get a green bin and 25 fortnightly collections, and the waste is composted locally by the Woodhorn Group.

Here is the problem. The garden recycling page says the service costs £78.00 a year, with the bin included. The council’s approved Fees and Charges 2026-27, effective from 1 April 2026, sets green waste collection at £75.50 for a 140 or 240 litre bin, by direct debit or any other method, and £102 for a 360 litre bin.

Both are live council documents and they disagree by £2.50. Check the figure on the payment screen before you commit. The 360 litre price is not published on the service page at all; existing customers who want extra bins are told to phone 01243 534619.

There are no refunds if you cancel part way through the year, and the council will come and take the green bin back.

Bulky waste, and the bag service

Two separate services, two very different prices:

  • Bulky household collection. £36 for the first item and £20 for each item after that, up to eight items per booking. Everything has to be outside the building but within your boundary by 6am. Crews will not come inside.
  • Bulky Bag service. You buy a bag, fill it, then book a collection. A medium bag is £160, a large £185 and a mega bag £265, all including delivery and collection. Bags are not available everywhere in the district, so check your address before paying.

Both prices are confirmed in the council’s Fees and Charges 2026-27 and on the bulky waste page.

The bulky bag will not take fridges, freezers, televisions, computer screens, batteries, food waste, tyres or asbestos. Nor will it take small electricals of any size. For a single sofa or fridge, the £36 item collection is the cheaper route by a wide margin.

Replacement bins cost £42 for 140 litres, £46 for 240 litres and £73 for 360 litres, with a 20% discount if you receive Council Tax Reduction. Excess waste sacks are £1.15 each.

Missed collection: you have 24 hours

Report a missed bin within 24 hours at Report a missed bin collection. Past that, the council will not come back and the form will not let you file it.

The council will also refuse to return if your bin was not out by 6am, or if a general waste, recycling or food bin contained something it cannot take. Every collection vehicle carries CCTV, and the crews use it to settle disputes. Where the fault is the council’s, it will return within seven days.

The collection point catches people out, because it is not the same for every bin:

  • Food, general waste and recycling: just inside your property boundary, at the nearest point to the road.
  • Green garden bin: outside the boundary, clearly visible from the road.

Recycling centres

The tips are run by West Sussex County Council, not the district, and you must book a slot for the two fixed sites.

Site Address Open
Chichester Coach Road, Westhampnett, PO18 0NX Seven days, 9am to 6pm from 1 April to 30 September; to 4pm from 1 October to 31 March
Midhurst Warren Way, Midhurst, GU29 9QX Closed Tuesday and Wednesday; otherwise 9am to 6pm in summer, to 4pm in winter

Details from the county council’s Chichester and Midhurst pages. The Midhurst midweek closure is the single most useful fact here and it is easy to miss.

Booking rules, from the Book to Recycle page:

  • Five visits per calendar month, per household.
  • Book up to 14 days ahead, or same day if a slot is free.
  • Slots are 15 minutes at Midhurst.
  • You need the registration of the vehicle you will arrive in, and it cannot be edited afterwards.
  • On foot, by bicycle or on a mobility scooter you do not need to book at all.

Neither site takes a Luton van, a horsebox, a twin axle trailer, a tipper, a flatbed or anything over 3.5 tonnes. Midhurst also turns away vehicles over 2.2 metres high.

The mobile sites at Selsey and the Witterings

If you are on the peninsula, the county runs mobile recycling sites every other Thursday, 8.15am to 3pm, and no booking is needed.

  • Selsey, in the East Beach car park. Next dates: 27 August, 10 and 24 September, 8 and 22 October, 5 and 19 November, 3 and 17 December 2026.
  • The Witterings, in the Marine Drive car park. Next dates: 3 and 17 September, 1, 15 and 29 October, 12 and 26 November, 10 December 2026.

The final date in each year’s list is marked closed for the Christmas period. Both sit in council pay and display car parks that charge seven days a week, so read our parking page before you go.

The kerbside textile and electricals service has gone

If you remember booking a doorstep collection for old clothes, small electricals or coffee pods, that scheme is over. Chichester District Council’s Cabinet decided on 2 September 2025 to end the trial after Podback withdrew its funding, and the last collections ran on 28 November 2025, per the council’s announcement.

Textiles and small electricals now go to charity shops, textile banks, repair cafes or the recycling centres. Coffee pods go to Podback drop-off points, including the Chichester and Midhurst tips.

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