Important changes to refuse and recycling collections will take place between Christmas and New Year affecting some households in Swindon.

Only two days will be affected by the changes and tags have been put on all of the affected bins to notify residents of the changes.

Aside from these changes, Swindon Borough Council’s waste and recycling crews will be out collecting as normal, providing the weather conditions ensure it is safe to do so.

There will be no collections on Christmas Day (Monday, 25 December) and residents are advised to put their waste and recycling out by 6.30am on Wednesday, 27 December and leave it out until it is collected. This will be done by Saturday, 30 December.

Those whose usual collection falls on Boxing Day (Tuesday, 26 December) are advised to put their waste and recycling out by 6.30am on Saturday, 30 December.

There will be no collection of blue bags on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day, meaning a double collection will take place the following week.

Crews will be working as normal on New Year’s Day so there are no changes to this collection day.

Garden waste collections will be suspended from Monday, 25 December until Friday, 5 January.

Real (not artificial) Christmas trees will be collected if residents leave them out so they are clearly visible from the road between Monday, 8 January and Friday, 19 January. These will be collected when the Garden Waste Recycling Team operate in the area, which may be different to the refuse and recycling collections. All decorations and tinsel should be removed as trees with decorations left on will not be taken away.

Cllr Mary Martin, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Place, said: “Christmas is an extremely busy time of year and our crews will be working incredibly hard to keep delays to collections to a minimum. Extra resources will be put in place to try to keep the level of disruption to a minimum, but please bear with us, especially if there are unexpectedly high volumes of waste or bad weather. The majority of rubbish produced during the festive period will be recyclable so please recycle as much as possible. We also ask households to separate the waste in their recycling boxes as it will make it much easier for the crews. Please also break down large cardboard boxes into smaller pieces.”

Updates on collections will be available on the Council website at: https://www.swindon.gov.uk/info/20122/rubbish_and_recycling_collection_days