Harrow Tip Opening Times: 8.30am to 4.30pm, Book First

Harrow’s recycling centre is open 8.30am to 4.30pm, seven days a week, all year round, and there is no separate winter timetable. It shuts on three days only: Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. You cannot turn up in a car without a booking.

The quick answer

Harrow Recycling Centre, Forward Drive, Wealdstone, HA3 8NT, is open 8.30am to 4.30pm every day. It is closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, which this year are Friday 25 December, Saturday 26 December and Friday 1 January. Cars must book a 30-minute slot online, up to 14 days ahead, and bring photo ID and proof of a Harrow address.

Opening times

The council’s recycling centre page gives one set of hours for the whole year: “Monday to Sunday 8.30am - 4.30pm. We are open every day except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day” (Harrow Council, recycling centre). The same wording was on the page in December 2025 (Wayback Machine copy, 26 December 2025), so the hours did not change for last winter either.

Monday 28 December is the substitute bank holiday for Boxing Day. The council’s rule names Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day and nothing else, so on the published wording the centre should be open that Monday. If the council posts a Christmas notice saying otherwise, this page will carry it.

How to book

Bookings are online only, at the council’s booking page. You choose a date and time, enter your contact details and give the registration of the car you will arrive in.

• How far ahead: up to 14 days.
• How many: up to two visits per vehicle per day.
• Slot length: 30 minutes from the time you booked. Arrive after that and you will be turned away and have to book again.
• One trip per slot: you cannot leave and come back with a second load inside the same slot.
• At the gate: your booking confirmation (it arrives by email, so check spam), photo ID such as a passport or driving licence, and proof of address such as a utility bill or council tax bill. A driving licence without a photo is accepted alongside a bank card in the same name.
• No internet: a friend or relative can book for you and pass on the reference number.
• Hire car: if you do not know the registration yet, enter your postcode and house number run together (the council’s example is HA35NB24) and edit the booking later.

To cancel, use the link in the confirmation email. All of this is on the council’s recycling centre page.

Walking in, vans and trailers

• On foot: you can walk in without an appointment. Go to the site office with photo ID and proof of a Harrow address. The council says you must not park on a nearby road and carry a car’s load in on foot.
• Vans: cannot use the booking system. They are charged, and go to the weighbridge on the lower level.
• Trailers: all trailers report to the weighbridge office. A trailer towed by a car still needs a booking; staff check whether the load is household waste.

What it takes

Sort your load before you arrive, because each material has its own bay. The council lists:

• household waste and garden waste
• mattresses, textiles and carpets (wearable clothes should go to charity first)
• metals, wood and timber
• small electricals such as phones, toasters and kettles
• large appliances such as cookers, TVs and fridges
• fluorescent tubes and coffee pods
• cooking oil, and engine oil up to 10 litres (residents only)
• rubble, soil and hardcore, five bags at most
• Christmas trees

Asbestos cannot go in your bin or to the Harrow centre at all. The council points residents to the City of London’s collection service for London households, which needs your council tax number and asbestos already double bagged in bags you buy yourself (Harrow Council, asbestos and hazardous waste).

What it costs

A booked car visit by a Harrow resident carries no charge on the council’s page. Charges apply to vans, trade waste and people from outside the borough:

Those rates went up this year. In December 2025 general waste was £346 a tonne with a £120 minimum, and green waste and cardboard £100 a tonne with a £31 minimum (Wayback Machine copy, 26 December 2025).

Clearing a relative’s home

If you are clearing the home of someone who has died, you can request special access. If you live outside Harrow and are clearing rubbish for a friend or relative who lives in the borough, book with their Harrow address, and someone who lives there has to come with you with their ID and proof of address.

If you cannot get there

• Bulky waste collection: one free collection of up to four items every 12 months, with up to four more items for £28.45. After that it is £59.70 for one to four items, £87.70 for five to eight and £115.70 for nine to twelve. Items go out from 4pm the day before and are collected from 6am. Booking is through a MyHarrow account (Harrow Council, bulky waste).
• Drop and Go: a monthly weekend pop-up in a different part of the borough, for up to five items per household that you can carry yourself. It takes furniture, mattresses, carpets, electricals, DIY waste and scrap metal, but not paint, chemicals, tyres or gas canisters. The next one is at Belmont Circle car park, HA3 8RE, on Saturday 26 September, 9am to 1pm (Harrow Council, Drop & Go).
• Laptops and bikes: Voluntary Action Harrow’s Sustain IT refurbishes laptops, and Collect4Reuse repairs bikes.

Still to confirm

• A Christmas notice. The council has not published one for 2026; its rule already gives the three closure days. We will check again in early December.
• Monday 28 December, the substitute bank holiday, is not a named closure day. We will confirm it when the council’s Christmas pages go up.

Your normal bin day and what goes in each bin are on Harrow bin collection days, and the Christmas changes to rounds are on Harrow Christmas bin collections. For the roads around Forward Drive, see Harrow roadworks and travel.

Sources

• Harrow Council, Harrow recycling centre
• Harrow Council, recycling centre page as of 26 December 2025 (Wayback Machine)
• Harrow Council, bulky waste collections
• Harrow Council, Drop & Go
• Harrow Council, asbestos and hazardous waste