Doncaster Council are responsible for providing refuse collection for Doncaster. The council operate bin collections based around three coloured wheelie bins, comprising a general waste collection and two recycling rounds, plus an additional green box for glass.
Doncaster bin collection is provided to all homes in the city by the council, offering general waste (black bin), paper, card, tin cans and plastic bottles (blue bin), glass (green box) and a garden waste (green bin) collection service. Collections run on a 2 week cycle, with general waste collections in one week and recyclable waste bins emptied in the other.
Collection Times
As a rule of thumb, bin collections start at 7am and run through to 6pm. However, from time to time lorries get held up, crews are delayed unexpectedly or events like road closures interfere with collections. For that reason, it’s possible that the 6pm finish will overrun, so leave your bin out until it’s been emptied or you’re notified otherwise.
While you might get a similar collection time each week, be sure to get your bin out by 7am, as they do vary, so it’s possible you might find yours is emptied really in the early in the round one week, even though you’re normally late in the day.
If necessary, put your bin out as late as possible on the night before the collection, although until recently the advice was that bins shouldn’t be on the street before 6pm on the evening prior to collection day.
Where To Leave Your Bin
Wheelie bins should be placed at the roadside, directly outside of your property wherever possible. In locations where that isn’t practical, or in areas where the bin lorries will not pass (for example private roads), bins should be left in a prominent position where they can been seen by staff as they pass on the collection route.
You should never obstruct a pavement by making it impossible to pass with your bin, give particular though to members of the public passing by with children in buggies or people in wheelchairs or travelling on mobility scooters.
Bin Collection Dates
We all lose track of bin collection dates from time to time, and in my case, it’s usually at the same time as I’ve misplaced my bin collection calendar. While Doncaster Council send bin day calendars to every household in Doncaster each year, that’s not a great deal of help if you can’t find it.
Fortunately, for most collections, the day stays the same every week. The notable exception is if you arrange for a bulky waste collection. For the black, blue and green bins, the vast majority of Doncaster residents will have the same collection day every week. If you start with the black bin collections for general waste, the pattern is:
| Week | Bin Colour | Bin Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black | General Waste |
| 2 | Blue/Green Box | Recycling |
| 3 | Black | General Waste |
| 4 | Blue/Green Box | Recycling |
If you’re not sure where you are in the cycle, you can head over to the calendar checker tool and add your address. You’ll be able to see immediately which collection is next.
Getting A Replacement Bin Calendar
If you like to have a paper copy of your calendar and have lost the original, there’s an easy solution. You just need to use the tool we just talked about and save a copy. On a Windows computer, press ctrl and P together and choose to print it as a PDF to save to your PC. That’s easy to open and print if you’ve got a printer available at home.
Similarly, you can copy the PDF file to your phone or tablet (like an iPad or Kindle) to reference whenever you need it. The online checker can be a bit slow at times, so keeping a downloaded copy handy is a good idea.
What Goes In Each Bin?
Knowing what goes in your bins should be easy, but I don’t think I’m the only one that wonders from time to time, especially with the brown recycle bin for plastics, metal and glass. Equally important is what does not go in your general waste and recycle bins.
Let’s go through them one by one to cover the most common items.
Blue Bin
Let’s start with the easy one. The 240 litre blue bin is for paper, card, tin cans and plastic bottles and is collected every other week on your designated collection day.
Examples of what shouldn’t be in your blue bin include takeaway wrapping such as fish and chip packaging and pizza boxes. Also, as a side note from someone who has seen it too often, nappies aren’t pure paper or card, whether used or not!
Remember that boxes are really easy to flatten, and flat boxes fit much better inside your bin. It’s not a requirement, but if you frequently fill your blue bin, collapsing all of your cardboard before it goes into the blue wheelie bin will mean you can fit a lot more in. Remember that for all bins, the lid must be fully closed for collection.
The same goes for plastic bottles too, so remove the lid (you can wash them out in old washing up water too to keep your bin clean), squeeze out most of the air and replace the lid. They’ll then take up less of the space in the wheelie bin. Read more about recycling bottles with lids on here.
The key part is the plastics being bottles only. Tops on bottles can be recycled. The following items should not be placed into your blue bin, and can go into your black bin, or better still be recycled at one of the household waste recycling centres (HWRCs):
- Pots (including yoghurt pots)
- Tubs (including ice cream tubs and margarine tubs)
- Pumps (the pump should be unscrewed from a bottle where possible, but the bottle itself can go in the brown bin once the pump is removed. Trigger style spray tops are fine to go into the brown bin.)
- Food trays (including fruit packaging trays and whole chicken packaging trays)
Remember, just because food packaging states that it is 100% recyclable, it doesn’t always mean it can be recycled in your blue recycling wheelie bin. Sometimes it will say it’s suitable for kerbside recycling, which is a better but still not perfect indicator.
If you’re struggling with your blue recycling bin being full, you can leave additional cardboard and paper out for collection next to your main blue bin, but it must be secured in a cardboard box. Please don’t use plastic bags as the crews don’t have time to empty them out or have anywhere to dispose of them.
Green Box
Alongside the blue bins are the Green Boxes, collectively forming Doncaster’s standard recycling collections service.
Broadly, it’s glass bottles and jars that goes into your green recycling box.
Electrical Items
Did you know that on the recycling collection day (that’s blue bin and green box rounds), you can leave out small electrical items to be take too?
They should not be placed into the recycling bins or boxes, but placed on the pavement next to them for collection. By small, it means no bigger than a kettle or toaster size, which is guidance that’s very much open to opinion. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to interpret that as the size of a normal family kitchen kettle or toaster.
Black Bin
A lot of people consider the 240 litre black bin to be everything else. Unfortunately that’s not quite true. While most other non recyclable waste can go in your black bin, there are many examples of things that shouldn’t be placed in there for your fortnightly collection.
Here’s a run down of the most common types of waste that cannot be taken at the roadside in your black bin:
- Hazardous waste (asbestos, biohazards – contact the council’s waste management department on 01302 736000 for guidance about collections)
- Batteries (these can cause fires in rubbish trucks)
- Paper and card (put it in your blue recycle bin)
- Building materials (bricks, rubble, tiles – take them to a Household Waste Recycling Centre)
- Business waste (collections are for household waste only)
- Hot items (allow the to cool before they go in the bin – e.g. barbecue ashes)
- Plastic bottles, tins (put them in your blue recycling bin)
- Glass bottles and jars (put them in your green recycling box)
- Garden waste (use the garden collection service or take it bagged to the nearest HWRC)
Green Bin
Doncaster operate one of a dwindling number of garden waste collections that’s free as part of the council tax funded services.
Collections run between March and November with a brief break over the winter months when there’s less demand for garden waste collections.
If you need more than one bin emptying per collection you can apply for a second bin for a fee. The first additional green bin costs £38 per year and additional ones cost £29 annually.
If you’d like to take advantage of additional garden waste bins, there’s more detail on the council’s website here.
As for what can go into your green bin, the main items are:
- Grass cuttings
- Hedge trimmings
- Plant clippings
- Twigs
- Weeds
- Small tree branches (no thicker than 2 inches/5 centimetres)
Conversely, the follow must not be put into a green bin for collection:
- Large branches
- Stones
- Rubble
- Knotweed
- Plastic bags (don’t wrap the garden waste – place it directly into the bin)
- Pond waste
- Mulched grass
- Rotting garden waste
- Business waste
- Anything that goes into the other bins
Doncaster’s green bin collections are recycled, by creating compost. This is sold commercially and used by the council itself.
How To Get A Replacement Wheelie Bin
In days gone by, if your bin got lost, damaged or stolen, you’d be able to get a free replacement by calling the council. Now though, it’s a chargeable service to have some new bins delivered.
It’s undoubtedly annoying to have to pay for a new one, especially if someone has taken your bin or damaged it.
The standard service blue recycle bins and green boxes are free to get a replacement, so here’s the current costs at the time of writing (last checked in July 2022).
| Bin Colour | Waste Type | Replacement Cost (at 07/22) |
|---|---|---|
| Black | General Waste | £23 |
| Blue | Recycling | Free |
| Green Box | Glass | Free |
| Green Bin | Garden Waste | £23 |
If you need to order a replacement bin, you can start the process here.
Please note, if you only need a new lid, you can indicate that you just need a free replacement. If old bins can be repaired, you may be eligible for a refund for your replacement.
Can I Get A Larger Or Extra General Waste Bin?
Unlike the Garden waste service, you cannot simply opt for more non-recyclable waste to be take away. There are criteria to determine who qualifies for additional general waste collections.
As a broad rule of thumb, in order to qualify for a second (smaller 140 litre) black general waste bin, you must either have more than five people in your home or have two very young children (mainly due to nappy waste) or both.
If you qualify via either or both of those criteria, you must also be able to demonstrate that you are fully making use of recycling collections before the council will allow you to order an additional black general waste bin.
Additional bins (where granted) are 140 litre capacity – that’s around 40% smaller than the main black bin. There is unlikely to be a larger bin service available for a first (or second) bin.
Applications are judged on a per case basis. The general criteria is that larger households will qualify, which will include homes with six or more people. However, it is likely that an analysis of waste will be needed to ensure that a larger black bin collection is required, as the council are rightly pushing for the maximum possible amount of waste to be recycled.
Remember that you can leave additional paper and card waste next to your blue bin if it is full, but the other waste collections must be made in a bin with the lid fully closed.
How To Report A Missed Collection
If your bin has not been collected by the end of the normal collection day, you should follow these steps:
- Check your bin is out and has been since before 7am.
- Check the bin to see if a sticker or tag has been left to explain why it has not been emptied.
- Check the council updates page for any service interruptions.
- Check the collection day tool online to see if any notes have been made
- If you’re still unclear why your bin has not been emptied, report a missed collection.
