Rugby Bin Days: Your Food Caddy Is on Another Day

Checked 30 August 2026. Rugby Borough Council’s rule on bank holidays is one line on a page most people never reach: “The collection cycle normally changes at Christmas and New Year, but carries on as usual on all other public and Bank Holidays.” (Our waste collection service)

So put your bin out on Monday 31 August. With one caveat the council is flagging itself, below.

The thing the council does not tell you plainly is that your food caddy is probably not collected on your bin day. Rugby’s own lookup returns a separate date for the caddy, and we checked it against 47 addresses across the borough today. At 35 of the 43 properties that returned both, the caddy day fell on a different weekday from the black bin. Detail and method are further down.

Right now: staff shortages, and a warning for Monday

The council is carrying a site-wide banner: “Due to staff shortages some bin rounds may be missed on Monday (31 August 2026).”

It is not hypothetical. Its disruption page says black bin collections were not completed on Thursday 27 August at properties in 22 named locations, listed as Albert Street, Regent Street, Chestnut Field, Morton Gardens, Hillmorton Road, Railway Terrace, Murray Road, Bath Street, Church Street, Clifton Road, Abbey Street, Lower Street in Hillmorton, Pettiver Crescent, Webb Ellis Court, Birdingbury, St Mark’s Court, Cambridge Street, Chester Street, Mill Road, Church Lawford, Long Lawford and Clayhill Lane. The council said it intended to collect them the next day.

If your round is missed, leave the bin out. That is the council’s own instruction, and it changes what you should do next: see the missed collection rules below.

Which bin is which

The food waste service started on Monday 6 July 2026, and it is the first change to Rugby’s bins in years. Every household was sent a 7 litre indoor caddy. Houses also got a 23 litre outdoor caddy with a lockable lid; flats and managed accommodation got a 140 litre wheelie bin instead. If yours never arrived, the council’s food waste page has a request form, or you can ring 01788 533533.

Two things about that launch are worth knowing.

• Your bin day did not change after all. The council had written to residents saying collection days would move. It then reversed that, in its own words: “We could not finish the work needed at our depot in time. So rather than change some of your collections, we are keeping your existing bin collections exactly as they are now.”
• Line the caddy with a plastic bag, not a compostable one. The council is explicit about this. Plastic survives anaerobic digestion and is screened out afterwards. Biodegradable bags can break down inside the caddy.

Your food caddy day, and how we know

The council’s bin day lookup is backed by an open address-by-address service, so we queried it directly on 30 August for 47 properties across 12 postcodes in CV21, CV22 and CV23.

• The caddy day differed from the black bin day at 35 of the 43 properties that returned both dates.
• The green garden bin also drifts. It fell on a different weekday from the black bin at 20 of the 25 properties that had one.
• Caddy rounds run Monday to Friday. Every weekday appeared in the sample.

Two real examples. On Park Walk in CV21 the black bin is Wednesday, the caddy Friday and the garden bin Tuesday: three containers, three days. On Church Walk in CV22 the black bin is Friday, the caddy Thursday and the garden bin Wednesday.

Only Thurnmill Road and Speedwell Close in our CV23 sample had everything on one day. So look up your own address rather than assuming.

What goes in each bin

From the council’s current Rugby Recycles leaflet.

Blue-lid bin. Cereal boxes and thin card, newspapers and magazines, junk mail and envelopes, plastic bottles, pots and tubs, brown, green and clear glass bottles and jars, food and drink cans and aerosols, clean foil and foil trays, and wax cartons.

Plastic bags and films now go in the blue-lid bin, loose. That changed under the government’s Simpler Recycling reforms and the council confirms it on its Simpler recycling page. The rule that trips people up is the one either side of it: the film goes in loose, and nothing else may be bagged.

Not in the blue-lid bin: household waste, electrical items, batteries and vapes, children’s toys, nappies, polystyrene, garden waste, and textiles, shoes or clothes.

Black bin. Nappies and pads, double-bagged cat litter and dog waste, polystyrene, foil pouches, sanitary towels and empty toothpaste tubes. Black bin waste may be bagged. Keep out building waste and rubble, electrical items and batteries. Rugby’s black bin waste goes to an incinerator for energy recovery, with some to landfill.

Green bin. Grass cuttings, weeds with the soil knocked off, prunings, small branches under 15cm, cut flowers and cut-up Christmas trees. No sacks or plastic bags, no soil or turf, no rubble.

The council contradicts itself on food in the green bin

This one is unresolved as we publish, and it matters if you subscribe to garden waste.

• The food waste FAQ says no: “from July onwards, garden waste will be sent to Open Windrow Composting site, which food waste cannot be processed at”.
• The garden waste page says yes: “If you subscribe to the garden waste collection service, you can put food waste in your garden waste bin”, because green waste “will continue to be processed at the In Vessel Composting Facility at Ufton”, and Warwickshire County Council “advise that food waste found in the garden waste bin will not be treated as contamination at this time”.
• The Rugby Recycles leaflet, still the current download and last updated in September 2025, labels the green bin “GARDEN & FOOD WASTE” and lists meat, bones, dairy and plate scrapings in it.

Two live council pages and its own leaflet disagree, nearly two months after the new service began. Use the caddy. It is collected weekly, it is what the new service is for, and it is the only answer all three sources accept.

Garden waste: £46 a year, and a five-week winter gap

The garden bin is a subscription. From the council’s garden waste page and its 2026-27 terms:

• £46 per bin for the year, covering 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2027
• No pro rata. Sign up in March and you still pay £46, and it still expires in April
• No refunds and no concessions, other than a 14-day cancellation right if you return the permit unused
• Suspended over Christmas, for “at least the dates 14 December 2026 to 15 January 2027 inclusive”. That is a five-week gap
• You must display the sticker. Unstickered green bins are not emptied
• Allow up to two weeks from payment before your first collection
• Online payment only for 2026-27. The 2025-26 terms allowed payment by phone; the new ones say “We cannot take payments for this service by telephone”
• No side waste, and the lid must shut

One warning. The council’s own FAQ on that page says “The charge will be £45 per bin for the year” in its answer about multiple bins, while every other line on the page and both sets of terms say £46. Treat £46 as the price.

Bulky waste: £40, and no fridges at all right now

From the bulky waste page:

• £40 for up to three household items
• £5 for each extra item, to a maximum of six
• A quote above six items, or for non-household goods such as sheds and play equipment. The council aims to quote within five working days
• £10 to cancel or move a booking, and you need at least 48 hours’ notice. After that there is no refund
• Two to four weeks’ wait in some areas
• Collections run 7.00am to 2.30pm. Leave items at the front boundary. Crews cannot enter a house or a garage under any circumstances
• Book online, or ring 01788 533332 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays

Fridges and freezers: Warwickshire County Council suspended fridge and freezer recycling on 5 August 2026 and lifted the suspension on 8 September, telling district councils they could resume their own fridge collections. Check with the borough before booking one. More on that below.

Missed collection: the two-day window

The rules on the council’s missed bin page are tighter than most people expect.

• Put the bin out by 6am. In extreme heat the council may start rounds at 5am, and says it will normally warn residents through the Rugby App
• Do not report before 3.30pm on your collection day. Crews work until then
• Report within two days of the due date, excluding weekends. A Thursday miss must be reported by the following Monday
• Leave the bin out until it has been emptied. The council aims to return within three working days
• The council will not return for a bin that was overloaded, compacted or frozen shut, and it does not take waste left beside a bin

On bin numbers, the allowance is one indoor caddy, one outdoor caddy or shared bin, one black bin and a maximum of two blue-lid bins. A second black bin is granted only for medical reasons, with proof from a GP or hospital, or in some cases for houses in multiple occupation. Requests go to contact.centre@rugby.gov.uk.

The tip: Hunters Lane, and you have to book

Warwickshire County Council, not the borough, runs the recycling centres. Two serve the borough: Hunters Lane in Rugby and Stockton on Rugby Road, CV47 8LA.

Booking is now required at Hunters Lane seven days a week, through Eventbrite, under a hybrid booking system the county brought in to manage queues. The county’s own site page warns of long weekend queues and asks people to come midweek if they can.

Opening hours at Hunters Lane:

The summary line at the top of the county’s own page gives shorter hours than its table does, quoting 4.15pm at weekends and no late Wednesday. The table is the detailed version and the page separately confirms the late Wednesday, so we have used the table.

• Hunters Lane is open on bank holiday Monday, with a booking
• It closes at 12.30pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and shuts on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day
• There is a 1.98m (6ft 6in) height barrier. Report to staff if your vehicle is taller
• Cyclists bringing household waste do not need to book

Stockton is different, and it is the trap for anyone in the south of the borough. It is closed Monday to Friday, all year, open 8.30am to 5.45pm at weekends in summer and 8.30am to 4.15pm in winter, closed on all bank holidays, and it takes no trailers at all.

The two councils publish different postcodes for Hunters Lane. The borough’s page says CV21 1DH; the county’s site record says CV21 1EA. Use a map rather than either.

Vans, pick-ups and trailers

From the county’s vehicle restrictions page:

• Vans and pick-ups up to 2.2 tonnes: restricted, but you can apply for six visits a year, and only if no unrestricted vehicle is registered at the same address
• Twin cab pick-ups and large 4x4s between 2.2 and 3.5 tonnes: four visits a year
• Cars with a single-axle, unbraked trailer up to 1.83m internal bed length and 750kg: no restriction
• Trailers up to 2.5m are allowed for unaccompanied green waste on weekdays before noon, but not on bank holidays
• Waste from a trailer pulled by a van or pick-up is chargeable

Fridges and freezers: back since 8 September

Update, 25 September 2026: the county resumed fridge and freezer collections at its recycling centres on 8 September, but says capacity remains limited. Details on our tip opening times page. The original suspension is below.

On 5 August 2026 the county council suspended all fridge and freezer collections at every recycling centre, for residents and businesses alike, with immediate effect. It blamed a national shortage of specialist treatment capacity after facility fires and plant closures, and said other authorities including Nottinghamshire had done the same.

Cllr Darren Cheshire, the county’s portfolio holder for environment, said: “Please do not bring these appliances to our recycling centres, as our staff will have to turn you away.”

At the time there was no end date. The council’s advice is to keep the appliance, use a retailer take-back scheme when you buy a replacement, or pass on a working one through Freegle, Freecycle or Marketplace. If you use a private collector, check they are a licensed waste carrier: fly-tipping traced back to your appliance is your problem, not theirs.

Christmas: nothing published yet

The council’s bin day page links to a page called “Christmas rubbish and recycling collections”. That link currently returns a 404. No Christmas timetable for 2026 has been published anywhere on the site that we can find.

What is known: the collection cycle changes at Christmas and New Year, and the garden waste service stops for at least 14 December 2026 to 15 January 2027. Last year’s revised dates and what to expect this year are on our Christmas bin collections page.

More Rugby local information: roadworks and travel, parking in Rugby, council tax bands and planning news. Our news write-up of the August bank holiday collections has the sampling we did on the council’s lookup earlier in the week.