Which Bin Does It Go In?
Search any household item to see whether it's food waste, red-lid paper, blue-lid recycling or the black bin — under Middlesbrough's 2026 bin system.
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Search any household item to see whether it's food waste, red-lid paper, blue-lid recycling or the black bin — under Middlesbrough's 2026 bin system.
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Middlesbrough's bin system changed in 2026: a new food waste caddy, a new red-lid bin for paper and card, and the blue-lid bin now just for tins, glass and plastic. Search anything you're throwing out to see which one it goes in.
Type what you’re throwing out — it tells you which bag or cart it goes in.
Any food, cooked or raw, including things you can't eat — bones, teabags, eggshells, peelings. Collected every week.
Paper and cardboard only. Collected every 2 weeks, on the opposite week to the blue-lid bin.
Tins, glass and plastic. Collected every 2 weeks, on the opposite week to the red-lid bin.
Anything that doesn't belong in the three bins above. Collected every 2 weeks.
Bin bags for the red and blue-lid bins
New in 2026
These don't go in any household bin. Take batteries and small electricals to a shop take-back point or the household waste recycling centre; textiles to a clothing bank or the recycling centre.
Garden waste is a separate paid subscription bin, not part of the four bins above.
The last word
The council's own A–Z recycling directory is the last word on anything not listed here.
Middlesbrough Council — your bin collections is the authority for your address.
Source: Middlesbrough Council's 2026 bin changes, reported by Teesside Live and BBC News, checked 28 July 2026 (yesterday).
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