Liverpool Bin Rules – Household Waste Disposal Rules in Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, Wirral & St Helens

There are five councils on Merseyside and each of them has a different set of ideas about what colour your bins should be, what goes in each one, how often they will empty them and how much they will charge you for the pleasure of putting your grass cuttings out. This is not, by itself, controversial. What tends to catch people out is moving from one borough to another and discovering that the bin they had been putting recycling into for a decade is now for something entirely different or that the free garden waste service in one town is a £63 subscription in the next.

What follows is a run-through of each of the five Merseyside boroughs and their household bin rules, looking at the colours, the collection frequency, the recycling, the garden waste, the bulky items and the tips. Where a figure changes with the seasons (garden waste subscription costs, in particular, are set annually), the current year’s number is used and dated. If you are moving house or reading this in a year or two, treat the specific pounds and pence with a bit of caution and check the council page before booking anything.

Liverpool

Liverpool City Council runs a purple/blue/green three-bin system across most of the city, plus a phased rollout of free weekly food waste collections that began in the September of 2025 and is still working its way across the postcodes.

Purple and blue bins alternate weekly, whilst green (garden waste) is a paid, opt-in service. Bins have to be out on the kerb by 6.30am on the day of collection, with the handles facing the road.

Purple Bin – General Household Waste

• What goes in: Anything that can’t be recycled or composted, including pet food and (until food waste collections reach you) food waste. Electrical items should not go in the purple bin, so you need to book a bulky collection or take them to a tip.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly, alternating with the blue bin.

Blue Bin – Recycling

• What goes in: Loose items only, never bagged. Yes to plastic bottles, tubs, trays, yoghurt pots, foil, empty aerosols, Tetra Pak cartons, tins, glass with lids on, paper, card, envelopes (even with plastic windows), cereal boxes, egg cartons, plant pots (all colours except black). No to black-bag waste, plastic bags, cling film, polystyrene, textiles, shredded paper, food, liquids, paint tins, electrical items, syringes or wood.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly, alternating with the purple bin.

Green Bin – Garden Waste (paid)

• What goes in: Grass cuttings, hedge clippings, dead plants, weeds, leaves, small twigs and branches up to 7.5cm/3 inches in diameter. No soil, turf, stone, timber, plastic pots or food waste.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly through the growing season. The paid service starts in late February.
• Cost: £50 for an annual subscription. The bin itself, if you don’t already have one, is a separate £25. There is a hardship refund policy for residents who genuinely cannot afford the fee.

Food Waste (Rolling Out)

• What goes in: Free weekly food waste collection. Being rolled out in phases across Liverpool from September 2025, on the same day as your purple or blue bin collection. Households receive a caddy and a caddy liner starter pack before their area goes live.
• Collection frequency: Weekly.

Bulky Items

• What goes in: Liverpool contracts Bulky Bob’s to run the bulky collection service and, unusually for the region, it is free to residents. You can book up to five bulky items, five small electrical items and five bags of textiles per collection.
• Cost: Free.

Rules That Catch Some People Out

No side waste. Anything left next to the bin, even a single extra bag, will not be collected. Textiles, clothes and shoes should go to a charity shop or textile bank, not the blue bin. Black plant pots are not accepted in recycling because the sorting machines cannot see them.

Sefton

 

Sefton Council uses a grey/brown/green system, which is where the colour confusion really starts to bite for anyone moving in from Liverpool or the Wirral. Grey is general waste, brown is recycling (yes, brown), green is the paid garden waste bin.

On top of that, some parts of the borough are still on sack collections rather than wheelie bins, with the council being in the middle of a ‘sacks to bins’ rollout at the time of writing. Both wheelie-bin and sack households run on an alternate-week schedule.

Grey Bin (Or Refuse Sack) – General Waste

• What goes in: Household waste that cannot go in the recycling or garden waste. If you are still on sack collections, you may present up to a set number of sacks per collection.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly for wheelie-bin households (alternating with the brown bin), weekly for sack households.

Brown Bin (Hessian Recycling Sack) – Mixed Dry Recycling

• What goes in: Mixed dry recycling all in one container: cans, cardboard, paper, glass and plastic bottles. Rinse containers, flatten cardboard.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly for wheelie-bin households, weekly for sack households.

Green Bin – Garden Waste (Paid)

• What goes in: Garden waste only. Grass cuttings, hedge clippings, weeds and prunings.
• Cost: A delivery and administration charge applies when you request a new garden waste bin and a separate subscription fee applies to the collection service itself. Sack-collection residents are entitled to have up to four garden waste bags collected free of charge. Both the current admin fee and the current annual subscription rate are set annually, so confirm with the council before subscribing.

Bulky Items

• What goes in: Sefton runs a paid bulky item collection. Details, current fees and item categories are available on the council’s Bulky Item Collections page, or you can call 0345 140 0845 or book online.
• Cost: Chargeable. Check the council page for the current tariff before booking.

Rules That Catch Some People Out

Brown is recycling and green is garden waste, which is the exact opposite of what Wirral residents will assume. Missed bins have to be reported within three working days or you’ll have to wait until the next scheduled collection. If you are on sack collections, extra bags left next to the bin will be treated differently to wheelie-bin households, so check the council page for your specific area.

Knowsley

Knowsley Council runs a maroon/grey/blue system and yes, maroon really is the general-waste bin, which no other Merseyside borough uses. Grey is recycling, blue is garden waste. General waste and recycling alternate weekly, whilst garden waste is three-weekly during the growing season.

Bins should go out by 7am on collection day, and no earlier than 6pm the evening before, with the collection window running until 3pm. Weekly food waste collections are rolling out from the spring of 2026.

Maroon Bin – General Household Waste

• What goes in: Anything that cannot be recycled or composted. Food waste will move out of the maroon bin as the borough’s food waste collections roll out in 2026.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly, alternating with the grey bin.

Grey Bin – Recycling

• What goes in: Co-mingled recycling, so plastics, metals, cartons, paper, card and glass all in one container. Rinse plastic bottles, cans, tins, glass jars and flatten cardboard.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly, alternating with the maroon bin.

Blue Bin – Garden Waste

• What goes in: Grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, plants, weeds and leaves.
• Collection frequency: Once every three weeks during the gardening season, March to November.
• Cost: Included as part of the standard council service in Knowsley (unlike Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton and St Helens, where garden waste is paid), which is one of the borough’s genuinely notable perks.

Food Waste

• What goes in: Free weekly food waste collections, on the same day as the maroon and grey bins.
• Collection frequency: Weekly.

Bulky Waste

• What goes in: Council-run bulky collection service. Collection days are geographically split, with Huyton and Stockbridge Village on Monday and Thursday and Prescot, Whiston, Cronton, Knowsley Village and Halewood on Tuesday and Friday. Fixtures and fittings such as bathroom furniture, doors and kitchens are not accepted.
• Cost: £30 for up to five items, £58 for six to ten items.

Rules That Catch Some People Out

The bins have to be retrieved from the kerbside by midnight on collection day and stored securely on your own property. Leaving them out on the pavement can lead to enforcement action. The maroon-versus-purple confusion trips up anyone moving from Liverpool. The three-week garden waste cycle also means holding on to grass cuttings for longer than in most other Merseyside boroughs.

The Wirral

The Wirral Council runs a green/grey/brown three-bin system and, critically, the colours mean something different here than they do on the Liverpool side of the water. Green is general waste, grey is recycling, brown is the paid garden waste subscription.

All three are fortnightly. Weekly food waste collections started rolling out on Monday the 6th of July 2026, with a phased approach across the peninsula. Bins have to be out by 7am with the wheels facing the road.

Green Bin – General (Non-Recyclable) Waste

• What goes in: Household waste that cannot be recycled: nappies, pet litter, dirty foil, plastic film and wrappers, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, polystyrene, clothes and textiles, tissues, broken crockery, light bulbs, plastic film, cornstarch packaging, coat hangers, food waste (only until food waste collections reach your area). No hazardous waste, asbestos, plasterboard, electricals, paint, fluorescent tubes, pesticides or loose dust. Vapes should not go in the green or grey bin, so you need to take them to a tip.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly.

Grey Bin – Recycling

• What goes in: A wide and generous list, with tins including biscuit and chocolate tins, foil (clean), aerosols, plastic tubs and trays including yoghurt pots and takeaway trays, Tetra Pak cartons, glass bottles and jars with tops on, cans, paper (not shredded), card, cardboard, envelopes with windows, pizza boxes (clean), plastic bottles including milk bottles, plant pots, cosmetics bottles, cleaning bottles, toilet roll tubes and wrapping paper (not foil or metallic) all included. No bagged recycling, meaning that everything has to be loose.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly, alternating with the green bin.

Brown Bin – Garden Waste (Paid)

• What goes in: Grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, prunings, leaves, weeds, dead flowers and real Christmas trees chopped up small. Everything has to fit inside the bin with the lid fully closed. No bags either inside or beside the bin as bagged garden waste is not collected.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly, with no collections over the Christmas and New Year period.
• Cost: Subscription runs from the first of June to the 31st of May. £63.50 for the first bin, £34.80 for each additional bin, £50 for a new or replacement brown bin. Payment is by card only. Subscription is linked to the property, not the person, so it does not travel with you if you move house.

Food Waste (From 6 July 2026)

• What goes in: Weekly food waste collection is being introduced in phases, on the same day as the green and grey bins. Once your area is live, food waste is no longer allowed in the green bin.
• Collection frequency: Weekly.

ERIC – Bulky Items

• Info: Wirral’s bulky collection service is branded ERIC, which is an acronym for Environmental Recycling Improvement Collection. Up to six separate items can be listed per booking. The council aims to collect within ten working days. Anything not listed on the booking will not be taken. Items containing Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs, such as sofas, sofa beds, armchairs, kitchen and dining chairs, upholstered stools, home office chairs, futons, beanbags, floor and sofa cushions, are collected separately, sometimes at different times of the day. Collection days are also geographically scheduled, meaning Bebington, Bromborough and Port Sunlight are collected on Mondays, whilst Oxton and Rock Ferry are on Tuesdays, and so on.
• Cost: £45 per visit.

Rules That Catch Some People Out

Lids of bins must be fully closed, so overfilled bins are simply not emptied. The colour swap versus Liverpool is the biggest tripwire for new residents, as your green bin here is your purple bin over the water. Missed bins must be reported after 5pm on the collection day and within three working days.

St Helens

St Helens Council runs arguably the most unusual system on Merseyside.

The general waste bin is brown (not grey, not maroon, not green), and recycling is not one container but several, made up of a green bag, a black box, a blue bag, a white bag and a food caddy, which are all sorted at the kerb and collected weekly. Garden waste is a separate paid green bin. Containers have to be out by 6:30am.

Brown bin – General Household Waste

• What goes in: A 240-litre wheelie for anything that cannot be recycled.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly.

Sorted-at-the-Kerb Recycling Containers

• What goes in: There are five separate containers and the council’s website details which materials go in which container. Broadly, this is why glass and cans do not end up in the same container. Additional recycling containers and bags can be presented up to a maximum of four of each type. Recycling containers themselves are free of charge.
• Collection frequency: Weekly.

Green Bin – Garden Waste (Paid)

• What goes in: Grass cuttings, hedge clippings, weeds, prunings.
• Collection frequency: Fortnightly.
• Cost: £46 subscription for the 2026 season, giving you 21 collections between Monday the second of March 2026 and Friday the 18th of December 2026. There is no reduction if you sign up part-way through the year, and permits can take around 14 working days to arrive. There is a delivery and administration charge of £36.50 for any new or replacement brown or green bin.

Bulky Waste

• Info: St Helens Council runs a paid bulky waste collection. Rules on Persistent Organic Pollutants mean that ripped or damaged upholstered items have to be securely covered in plastic sheeting or fully taped before collection.
• Cost: £25.50 for up to three standard items, with one further standard item at £8. Electricals, fridges and freezers are £17.50 each, with a maximum of two per booking. Sofas and other upholstered furniture are also £17.50 each.

Rules That Catch Some People Out

The multi-container recycling system needs a fair bit of storage space, which is why the council actively encourages residents to request extra bags or boxes rather than putting recycling in the wrong container. Containers must be out by 6:30am, which is earlier than most other Merseyside boroughs.

Cross-Merseyside tips, HWRCs and Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority

The five Merseyside boroughs, along with Halton, jointly fund the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority, or MRWA, which manages waste resources, recycling and transportation on behalf of all six councils. The Household Waste Recycling Centres, more usually known as the tips, are operated on MRWA’s behalf by Veolia and any Merseyside resident can use any Merseyside site regardless of which borough they live in.

There are fourteen Merseyside HWRCs in total, spread across the five boroughs:

• Liverpool has Old Swan (Cheadle Avenue, L13 3AF) and Otterspool (Jericho Lane, L17 5AR).
• Knowsley has Huyton (Wilson Road, L36 6AD) and Kirkby (Depot Road, L33 7UZ).
• Sefton has Formby (Altcar Road, L37 8DL), Sefton Meadows (Sefton Lane, Maghull L31 8BX), South Sefton (Irlam Road, Bootle L20 4AE) and Southport (Foul Lane, PR9 7RG).
• The Wirral has Bidston (Wallasey Bridge Road, CH41 1EB), Clatterbridge (Mount Road, Bebington, CH63 4JZ) and West Kirby (Greenbank Road, CH48 5HR).
• St Helens has Newton-le-Willows (Junction Lane, WA12 8DN), Ravenhead (Burtonhead Road, WA9 5EA) and Rainhill (Tasker Terrace, L35 4NX).

Between them, the sites take household waste, recycling, garden clippings, wood, glass, cans, cardboard, food and drink cartons, textiles, shoes, hard plastics, electrical items, batteries, mobile phones, mattresses, oils, tyres, plasterboard, rubble, soil, white goods and, since the August of 2023, disposable vapes. Not everything is taken everywhere, with paint only accepted at one designated site per borough. It’s Bidston on the Wirral, Huyton in Knowsley, Old Swan in Liverpool, Ravenhead in St Helens and Sefton Meadows or Southport in Sefton.

Asbestos is only accepted at Bidston on the Wirral, Huyton in Knowsley and Southport in Sefton, and only by prior booking through Veolia. Upholstered domestic seating goes into a separate container at all sites because of the POPs rules.

If you turn up in a van of any size, have a trailer of between two and three metres, an estate or 4×4 with rear seats permanently removed or side and rear windows blanked out or a single-cab pick-up truck, you need to book an appointment first. The booking is free, but has to be done through the MRWA online portal. Residents using any of those vehicles are limited to twelve visits per year across all sites combined. A standard car with the back seats still in place is not affected by any of this.

Site opening hours change with the seasons, but broadly, sites open at 8am, close at 8pm from the first of April to the 30th of September, and close at either 5pm or 6pm from the first of October to the 31st of March, seven days a week except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Rainhill has slightly different weekend hours. For the current picture on any site, including which items are accepted where, appointment slots and temporary closures, the merseysidewda.gov.uk website is the single source worth looking at.

Things to Be Aware Of

Always check the council page before booking.

Bin rules change often. The colours themselves are unlikely to change in a hurry, but garden waste subscription costs are set annually, food waste collections are being rolled out in phases across nearly every borough at the time of writing and bulky waste tariffs shift when contracts are renewed.

The figures used in this piece are the current published rates on each council’s own website in the summer of 2026. That means Liverpool garden waste at £50 for the year plus £25 for the bin, Wirral brown bin at £63.50 for the June of 2026 until the May of 2027 subscription, St Helens garden waste at £46 for the 2026 season and, separately, Knowsley’s garden waste service included as part of the standard council offer without a subscription fee.

Food waste collection rollout dates are all council commitments rather than firm delivery dates on your specific street. Wait for the caddy and the accompanying calendar before assuming the service has reached your address.

If any figures in this piece are out of date by the time you read it, the council pages are the ones to trust.