Four containers, food waste weekly, garden waste £66 a year and bulky collections £75. Where the nearest tip is, and what the council never publishes.
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council gives most homes four containers, and a fifth if you pay for garden waste. It collects food waste every week. It does not publish how often it empties anything else, and it has no bank holiday policy on its website at all.
Everything below comes from the council’s own waste pages and from Kent County Council, which runs the tips. Two things are worth knowing before the detail.
- The borough has no household waste recycling centre of its own. Kent County Council runs 19 sites across the county and not one of them is in Tonbridge and Malling. You have to drive into Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells or Maidstone district, and you have to book first.
- Fridge and freezer collections are suspended. The council is not taking bookings because of what it calls a national problem with disposal. It suggests asking the shop selling you the new one to take the old one away.
Which bin is which
The council’s split is unusual in one respect: paper and cardboard do not go in the recycling bin. They go in the green box, separately, because the council sends them to local paper mills rather than through the mixed recycling stream.
The other trap is black plastic. Black food trays and black plant pots go in the black bin, not the green one, along with coffee capsules, crisp packets, plastic film, polystyrene, broken crockery, mirrors and any glass that is not a bottle or a jar.
Two rules that save an argument with the crew:
- Do not line the green bin. The council says a liner can fall out into the vehicle and contaminate the load.
- Excess cardboard is accepted. If you have more than fits in the green box, fold it flat and leave it beside the box. The council will take “a reasonable amount”, which it defines as about another box’s worth. If it happens every week, order up to two extra boxes instead.
The food caddy is a two-part system: a five litre grey caddy for the kitchen, and a 23 litre black and orange lockable outdoor bin that goes out for collection. The lid locks when the handle is upright or forward, so check it is locked before you leave it out. Compostable liners, paper bags or newspaper are fine. Plastic bags are not.
Finding your collection day
The council’s checker is a postcode and address lookup at tmbc.gov.uk/xfp/form/167. There is no printable calendar and no round map.
One caveat we can report first hand: the address lookup behind that form was returning no results for valid Tonbridge postcodes for most of Saturday 30 August 2026. It worked earlier the same day. If it comes back empty for you, it is the council’s gazetteer, not your postcode.
Bins must be out by 7am, at the property boundary nearest the road the lorry uses, and brought back inside afterwards. In hot weather the council starts rounds at 5am and asks for bins out the night before, which it was still doing at the end of August 2026.
If you cannot get your bin out because of infirmity or disability, the council runs a pull-out service: it agrees a spot on your property, collects from there and puts the bin back. Ask the waste team on 01732 876147.
Bank holidays and Christmas
Tonbridge and Malling publishes no bank holiday collection policy. There is no festive calendar page, no bank holiday page, and no note on the waste pages.
What can be verified is this. On Saturday 30 August 2026, the day before the summer bank holiday, the council’s live collection updates page listed recycling, food waste, refuse and garden waste all “running to normal schedule”, with no bank holiday change flagged. In 2022 the council told KentOnline that its contractor Urbaser “generally operates as normal on all Bank Holidays”.
Christmas is the one that does move. Nothing is published for December 2026 yet. The revised dates appear on the collection updates page rather than in advance, so check it in the second week of December.
Garden waste
The brown bin is a paid subscription. The council charges:
- £66 a year for a 240 litre brown bin, emptied every two weeks
- £42 for each additional bin, up to three bins per property
- 12 months from the date you order, not from April, so your renewal date is your own
Some addresses get three 90 litre hessian sacks instead of a wheeled bin, where the round is sack-only. Bins arrive within about 10 working days and your collection day shows on the checker within 24 hours of ordering.
Grass, leaves, flowers, hedge clippings and branches up to 3cm thick are fine. Food waste, cardboard, soil, rubble and pet bedding are not, and invasive species such as Japanese knotweed, giant hogweed, ragwort and Himalayan balsam have to go to a specialist contractor.
There is a live billing problem worth knowing about: the council has warned that some garden waste customers have been sent invoice reminders for subscriptions they already paid, and says to disregard them.
Bulky waste
Prices apply from 1 April 2026 and cover up to six items in one collection.
| Collection | Cost | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Standard, up to six items | £75 | Card payment only |
| Fridge or freezer only | £46 | Bookings suspended |
| Subsidised, up to six items | £15.50 | Council tax reduction claimants, once every six months |
The subsidised rate is for people receiving council tax reduction. It explicitly does not apply if all you get is the 25% single person discount, which is the assumption that catches people out.
Items go outside by 7am on the day. Cancellations have to be in by 4pm the day before.
The council will not take Aga ovens, builders’ waste and rubble, concrete, engines and engine oil, large water tanks, liquid material, oil storage tanks, pianos, skips, toxic materials or tyres.
Missed collections
Report it through the online form, not by email. The form goes straight to the contractor, and you get an automated acknowledgement rather than a personal reply.
The council states no deadline for reporting and no deadline for returning. Its page says only that it will “get back for your bin/box as soon as we can”. If your neighbours’ bins were emptied and yours was not, that is the trigger it asks for. Damaged bins and replacement green boxes go through a different form on the waste and recycling hub.
The tip: where, and what it costs
There is no tip in the borough. The three nearest Kent County Council sites are:
| Site | Address | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Tunbridge Wells | North Farm Lane, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3EE | Tonbridge, Hildenborough, Hadlow |
| Sevenoaks | Main Road, Dunbrik, Sundridge TN14 6EP | Borough Green, Wrotham, Platt |
| Allington | Laverstoke Road, Allington ME16 0LE | Aylesford, Larkfield, Ditton, Snodland |
All three open 8am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday, 9am to 4pm on Sunday and 9am to 4pm on bank holidays, and all three have a 2 metre (6ft 6in) height barrier.
The rules that catch people out:
- You must book a slot before you arrive. Same day is fine, and you can book up to two weeks ahead, with no limit on visits in a day. If you cannot use the online system, call 03000 41 73 73.
- You cannot walk in. Kent’s rule is that waste cannot be carried onto the site on foot.
- DIY waste is rationed. Four visits in four weeks, and one large item (up to 200cm by 75cm) or two standard 50 litre black bags per visit. Over that it is £5 per item or bag, £7.50 a sheet for plasterboard.
- Tyres always cost. £3 each, up to five a day. There is no free allowance.
- Payment is card only. No cash, no cheques.
- Vans and trailers need a vehicle voucher, applied for in advance.
Allington is the one with a reuse shop, and you do not need a booking if the shop is all you are visiting.
Related
- Parking in Tonbridge: every council car park, tariffs and the free ones.
- Tonbridge council tax bands: the full A to H table for all 28 parishes.
- Tonbridge roadworks and travel: live closures on the routes to the tips.
Sources
- Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council: waste and recycling, the bins we provide, black bin, green bin, food caddy, green box and brown bin.
- Garden waste service, bulky waste collection, report a missed collection and collection updates, all read on 30 August 2026.
- Kent County Council: find your nearest tip, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and Allington centre pages, plus booking and charges.
- KentOnline, 17 September 2022, for the council’s statement on bank holiday working.
Last checked 30 August 2026. Prices and rules change; confirm with the council before you pay for anything.
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