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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/wigan-england-gb/bin-cycle
Wigan has four kerbside bins on two different cycles, and it's easy to lose track of which one is out this week. Here's what goes in each bin and how often it's collected. For your street's exact collection days, use the council's address checker below — it's the only place that knows your address.
If you have read that councils in England must collect food waste every week from 31 March 2026: that rule does not reach Wigan yet. Wigan Borough Council is one of thirty local authorities named in the regulations as having a transitional arrangement — its long-term waste contract runs on, and the weekly food-waste duty does not apply here until 1 April 2040. Food waste stays where it is, in the fortnightly green bin, alongside the garden waste.
No bank holiday affecting collections this week
Collections are on their usual days. When a bank holiday delays your collection, Wigan doesn't move the whole week — it catches the missed collection up, usually on the Saturday of that week. The exact dates around each holiday are printed on your collection calendar, so check there (or the address checker) when a bank holiday falls in your week.
How the cycle works
Your green bin — food and garden waste, with the small silver kitchen caddy — is collected every two weeks. Your other three bins are each collected once every three weeks: the blue bin (paper and card), the brown bin (metal, glass and plastic), and the black bin (general waste). Collections run Tuesday to Friday, and the day depends on your address, so check your street below.
What goes in each bin
When in doubt, leave it out — the wrong item can spoil a whole load of recycling.
Food and garden waste
Green bin (with a small silver kitchen caddy)
Every fortnight (alternating)
Food can go straight in — no bag needed. The caddy and compostable liners are for carrying it out to the bin. This is the bin the national weekly-food-waste rule would change, and Wigan is exempt from it until 2040, so it stays fortnightly.
Goes in
All food, cooked or raw — meat, bones and fish included
Bread, pastries and egg shells
Fruit and vegetable peelings
Teabags and coffee grounds
Grass, leaves and twigs
Small branches (under 15cm across)
Keep out
Liquid oils, fat or liquid dairy (milk, yoghurt, cream)
Food packaging of any kind
Soil, rubble or large branches
Plastic bags, including 'compostable' ones
Dog foul or cat litter
Paper and card
Blue bin (or white sack)
Every three weeks
Goes in
Newspapers, magazines, catalogues and junk mail
Office and writing paper, envelopes
Cardboard and boxes, flattened
Greeting cards without glitter
Kitchen and toilet roll tubes
Empty food and drink cartons, including Tetra Pak
Keep out
Nappies or incontinence pads
Food or food-soaked paper
Plastic bags, wrappers or trays
Polystyrene and crisp packets
Wallpaper
Metal, glass and plastic
Brown bin
Every three weeks
Goes in
Cans, tins and empty aerosols
Aluminium foil and foil tubes
Glass bottles and jars
Plastic bottles — put the lids back on
Pots, tubs and trays (yoghurt pots, margarine tubs)
Keep out
Scrap metal, pots and pans
Batteries, vapes and electricals
Pyrex, drinking glasses or window glass
Plastic bags, cling film and crisp packets
Engine oil or chemical containers
General waste
Black bin
Every three weeks
This is the bin on the three-weekly cycle that gets talked about most. Squashing and sorting the recycling out of it is what makes three weeks work.
Goes in
Anything that can't go in the other three bins
Nappies and incontinence pads
Dog foul and cat litter, bagged
Polystyrene, cling film and crisp packets
Keep out
Soil, rubble or building materials
Liquid waste such as paint or oil
Hazardous waste
Anything that belongs in the recycling or food-and-garden bins
Your exact day and week — check by address
This page explains the cycle and what goes in each bin. For your collection day and which week your street is on, use the council’s official address checker — it’s the only place that knows your street: Wigan bin-day checker (MyNeighbourhood).
Missed collection
Report a missed bin after 8pm on your collection day and within 48 hours. report it online