We provide wheelie bins or purple bags for your general household waste.
You should not put anything recyclable in your household waste.
We collect the black, non-recyclables bins or purple bags every 2 weeks.
We cannot collect:
- any items that could be put in your recycling bin
- building rubble
- hazardous items such as car batteries, pesticides and herbicides
- food that could be put in your food caddy
- garden waste - you can use our bookable green waste service
- light bulbs - you can take these to the Harlow Recycling Centre (the dump)
- liquids - such as paint
- syringes or needles - you can use our clinical waste service
- electrical items - you can use our free bulky waste service
- textiles - you can use our textile waste service
You can also check what can be taken to Harlow Recycling Centre (the dump) run by Essex County Council.
We can collect:
- packaging that cannot be recycled for example polystyrene
- any plastics not marked with 1 or 2 symbols - such as yoghurt pots, plastic bags, film wrapping and some plastic food trays
- cartons - juice and drinks
- wallpaper
- nappies and incontinence waste - you could also use our nappies and incontinence waste collection
We can also collect batteries (for house collections only) but these must be in a separate box, see our battery collection page for full details
Currently, any non-recycling collected in Harlow is sent to landfill (rubbish tips) and buried in the ground.
The more waste we send to landfill, the more harm we do to the environment with greenhouse gases, and the more landfill taxes rise.