Bournemouth Tip Opening Times: 9am to 4pm, No Booking

Bournemouth’s tip, the Bournemouth Recycling Centre on Ringwood Road, opens 9am to 4pm every day from October to March and 9am to 5pm from April to September. You do not need to book, but you do need proof that you live in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole. The Christchurch and Poole tips keep the same hours and take BCP residents too.

The quick answer

• 9am to 4pm, seven days a week, from 1 October. Last entry is 15 minutes before closing
• No booking. Bring a council tax bill, a photocard driving licence or a utility bill with your name and address
• Open on bank holidays except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Last year all three also shut at 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve

The three tips

Any BCP resident can use any of the three. The council’s pages for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole carry the same hours.

Christchurch is the strictest on ID: its page says plainly that you will be turned away without it.

At Poole there are two entrances. Cars use the one on the right, which has a 2 metre height barrier. The left-hand entrance, with a barrier and intercom, is for permit vans and pick-ups.

Christmas and New Year

The council’s standing rule is that the centres open on bank holidays, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Last Christmas it added two short days. All three centres closed at 1pm on Christmas Eve and at 1pm on New Year’s Eve (BCP Council, festive bin collections changes, 5 December 2025).

This year Boxing Day is a Saturday and the bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December (GOV.UK). The council has not yet said whether the tips open that Monday. Its 2026 festive notice is expected in early December. Last year’s came out on 5 December.

Real Christmas trees can go to any of the three for composting. The bin changes over the same fortnight are on our Bournemouth Christmas bin collections page.

Vans and trailers

• Trailers: no bigger than 6ft by 4ft (1.8m by 1.2m)
• Vans: need a valid BCP van permit, or a hire agreement of no more than three days
• Turned away: vans over 3.5 tonnes, vans or pick-ups that need a permit and are towing a trailer, Luton box vans, flatbeds, tippers, tractors, horse boxes and agricultural vehicles
• Dorset Council residents who are eligible to use BCP tips may bring cars only, not vans

You can walk or cycle in with waste, as long as you can carry it yourself and it is no bigger than a bin bag or rucksack. Driving there, parking outside and walking in does not count.

What costs money

DIY waste is free for one visit a week per household: either two 50-litre bags of soil, rubble, plasterboard or bonded asbestos, or one large item up to 200cm by 75cm, such as a shower screen or a toilet and cistern. Anything over that is charged.

The allowance only covers small jobs you do yourself. Waste from work someone was paid to do is refused. The per-bag and per-item prices are listed on our Bournemouth bin days page and on the council’s recycling centre charges page.

Asbestos must be cement-bonded, double bagged and paid for when you arrive.

What they take, and what they do not

All three take garden waste, metal, wood, furniture, mattresses, white goods, electricals, textiles, books, bikes, batteries, light bulbs, paint and garden chemicals, cooking oil, gas bottles, tyres, and extra recycling and rubbish. Single-use vapes are taken, with the battery removed from mods. Coffee pods go in separate bins for plastic and aluminium.

Fuel differs by site. Bournemouth and Poole take up to 10 litres of fuel or oil in its own container. Christchurch lists engine oil, up to 5 litres a visit.

None of them take clinical waste, needles, ammunition, flares, car or caravan parts, boats, motorbikes or large building-job waste.

The reuse shop

Items good enough to use again can be handed to staff at the Bournemouth or Poole centre. They are sold at the council’s new to you reuse shop at Cabot Lane Depot, BH17 7BX, open Saturdays 9am to 1pm (BCP Council, reuse shop).

Also on this site

• Bournemouth Christmas bin collections
• Bournemouth bin days
• Parking in Bournemouth
• Bournemouth roadworks and travel

Sources: BCP Council pages for the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole recycling centres; BCP Council, festive bin collections changes, 5 December 2025; BCP Council, reuse shop. Checked 25 September 2026.