Recycling and rubbish collections will change over the festive period.
For most households, collections will take place on the revised dates shown below.
These dates do not apply if you use purple and black bags, or if you live in a flat with shared communal bins. In these cases, please check your collection days for details.
| Your usual collection day | Your revised collection day | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 25 December 2025 | Saturday 27 December 2025 | 2 days later |
| Friday 26 December 2025 | Monday 29 December 2025 | 3 days later |
| Monday 29 December 2025 | Tuesday 30 December 2025 | 1 day later |
| Tuesday 30 December 2025 | Wednesday 31 December 2025 | 1 day later |
| Wednesday 31 December 2025 | Friday 2 January 2026 | 2 days later |
| Thursday 1 January 2026 | Saturday 3 January 2026 | 2 days later |
| Friday 2 January 2026 | Monday 5 January 2026 | 3 days later |
| Monday 5 January 2026 | Tuesday 6 January 2026 | 1 day later |
| Tuesday 6 January 2026 | Wednesday 7 January 2026 | 1 day later |
| Wednesday 7 January 2026 | Thursday 8 January 2026 | 1 day later |
| Thursday 8 January 2026 | Friday 9 January 2026 | 1 day later |
| Friday 9 January 2026 | Saturday 10 January 2026 | 1 day later |
Collections return to normal from Monday 12 January 2026.
Garth Road Recycling Centre is closed on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 December and on Thursday 1 January. For more details, see Merton Council's website.
Note - For Church of England schools, Catholic schools, academies, free schools or independent schools, please contact the school directly or check their website.
For full details, see Merton Council's website - here
For the latest travel information across London, see TFL's website.
Engineering works between Clapham Junction and London Waterloo mean there are significant changes to South Western Railway train services in our area over the Christmas period. There are also closures impacting the Sutton-Wimbledon loop Thameslink services. For changes to National Rail see their website here.
If travelling further afield, National Highways website contains details of latest travel issues on the nation's major roads.
Real Christmas tree collections start on 6th January. Put your tree out by 6am on Tuesday 6th January and it will be collected as soon as possible.
See Merton Council's website here.
Decisions on how Merton Council’s new Legacy Fund Advisory Board will allocate £15 million of public money will be made behind closed doors, after Labour councillors blocked plans for transparency.
Labour repeatedly failed to defend Wimbledon police station during key consultations. Merton is about to be left with no police front counters after the local Labour leadership took no action until closures were already decided.
Last night, Merton Labour blocked Lib Dems’ Women’s Health Strategy, despite Merton remaining the only borough in Southwest London without a breast cancer screening centre.
Merton Liberal Democrats demand action after years of Labour inaction on women’s health. Their “Her Health Matters” Strategy would deliver a full Women’s Health Needs Assessment and set up local Women’s Health Hubs.
Merton Liberal Democrats have slammed the decision to close both Wimbledon and Mitcham police front counters, leaving Merton borough with no public-facing police station for the first time in living memory.
Wimbledon MP Paul Kohler set up a cross-party meeting with St George’s trust leadership and local MPs to press the case for keeping the minor injuries open, where they learnt that closure has now been ruled out due to strong local opposition.