Common patterns
Black or grey often means residual waste, blue often means dry recycling, and brown or green often means garden waste. These are patterns only.
Use colour as a shortcut, not proof
The same colour can mean different things between councils, and some use bags, boxes or shared containers.
Find your council
Use a postcode to identify the authority responsible for your area, then follow the official local instructions.
We use an ONS-backed postcode match to identify the council. We do not store the postcode.