Waste and recycling service 13 January 2026

Waste and recycling teams have gone above and beyond during the recent adverse weather to service accessible routes, keep recycling centres open, and support snow clearing efforts across Aberdeenshire—and they are not stopping. The team has a range of plans in place to help communities get caught up. 

• We are doing our normal collections schedule
• We are preparing to put on extra off-schedule routes – to prioritise black-lid bins missed during the recent adverse weather   
• We are doing short-notice ad-hoc collections where we can. 
• We are accepting extra waste or recycling where we have not yet caught up on your bin. 

Our normal scheduled routes 

We are back to our normal collection cycle. So please take out your bins as you would normally on their scheduled collection day. 

Because we recognise the quantities of waste at properties, if your bin was missed on its scheduled collection day, you can put out extra alongside that same bin on its next scheduled collection day. Extra/side recycling or waste must match the bin being collected that day. Extra recycling or waste can be presented as follows: 

• The black lid bin (non-recyclable materials) in additional black bin bags—please double-bag if necessary to prevent splits. 
• The blue lid bin (paper, card, and cardboard only) in cardboard boxes. Please try to keep them clean and dry. 
• The orange lid bin (metal tins, cans, aerosols and foil, food and drink cartons, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays) in non-black bags to help crews know they can safely decant the contents into the emptied orange lid bin for re-emptying. 

Extra off-schedule routes 

We are finalising a plan just now to put on additional off-schedule collections towards the end of this week. These extra collections will prioritise black-lid bins missed during the adverse weather to help get collections back on track. It is likely these will take place on Friday and Saturday but that is to be confirmed. 

These extra off-schedule collections will be communicated across our channels soon so please allow our contact centre to focus on other urgent calls. 

Ad hoc routes 

Once our crews have started their usual routes each day, the waste team have a better idea if and where they might be able to do an ad hoc run of local routes. These are last minute, and we appreciate that can be frustrating. But we are going to prioritise communicating those through the myAberdeenshire app, so download and sign up and make sure your notifications are switched on: aberdeenshire.gov.uk/my/mobile-app 

Other important information 

Should you wish to recycle or get rid of waste sooner, our household recycling centres are available to visit. 

We will accept food waste for recycling at Macduff, Ellon, Inverurie, Stonehaven, and Banchory household recycling centres temporarily. 

Alford household recycling centre is open for an additional day today and tomorrow, and Insch household recycling centre will also be open for an additional day tomorrow.