Slough Borough Council runs one household waste recycling centre: Chalvey, on White Hart Road at the council’s Chalvey depot. It opens seven days a week and there is nothing to book, but it is stricter than the tips around it — vans and pickups are not allowed in at all, and Slough residents who arrive in one are sent to a weighbridge that shuts on Sundays.
Two current changes matter as well: Chalvey has stopped taking upholstered seating and textiles for now, and Buckinghamshire’s Langley site, one of the two Bucks centres Slough residents can use for free, is closed for works until 2027. Everything below was checked against the councils’ own pages in September 2026. Temporary rules change, so confirm on slough.gov.uk before you load the car.
Chalvey recycling centre opening times
Chalvey is open Monday to Sunday, bank holidays included, on seasonal hours. Last entry is 15 minutes before closing.
| Period | Days | Hours | Last entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer (1 Apr – 30 Sep) | Monday to Sunday | 9am – 6pm | 5.45pm |
| Winter (1 Oct – 31 Mar) | Monday to Sunday | 9am – 5pm | 4.45pm |
| Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve | 24 and 31 December | 9am – 1pm | 12.45pm |
| Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day | 25 and 26 December, 1 January | Closed | — |
Winter hours start on 1 October and take an hour off the end of the day. Even then, Chalvey stays open later than the Buckinghamshire sites Slough residents can also use: Burnham and Beaconsfield close at 4pm from October.
Short closures while containers are emptied
Chalvey closes for short spells during the day so its on-site containers can be emptied safely. The council keeps these to a minimum and asks visitors to wait patiently while it reopens, so a queue that is not moving does not necessarily mean the site has shut for the day.
Who can use Chalvey, and what to bring
Chalvey is for residents of Slough and of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Bring proof of address, such as a utility bill, and photo ID — a driving licence or passport.
In a car that fits under the height barrier there is no permit to apply for and no slot to book: you turn up during opening hours. Use of the site is monitored, though. Number-plate recognition cameras and CCTV record who comes in, and the council says unusually regular users will be investigated.
Four site rules are worth knowing before you set off:
- You cannot bring waste in on foot, or park outside and carry it in — it has to arrive in a vehicle
- Children and pets stay in the vehicle
- Staff cannot help you unload, so bring someone to help with anything large or heavy
- Tip waste out of black sacks and bags and sort it into the labelled containers
Whatever goes in the non-recyclable container is incinerated at the Lakeside energy-from-waste plant.
Vans, trailers and the 1.7m height barrier
This is the rule that turns most people around. The entrance has a 1.7m (5ft 9in) height barrier, and vans and pickup trucks are not permitted in the recycling centre, whatever their height.
| Vehicle | What happens at Chalvey |
|---|---|
| Car under 1.7m | Straight in — no permit needed |
| Car towing a trailer | Allowed if the trailer is no bigger than 1.5m long × 0.91m wide |
| Van or pickup (Slough resident) | Not allowed in the recycling centre — you are sent to the Waste Transfer Station (weighbridge) on the same site |
| Van or pickup (Royal Borough resident) | Not allowed — use the Waste Transfer Station at Stafferton Way in Maidenhead |
| Any other vehicle over 1.7m | Treated the same way: the Slough weighbridge, or Stafferton Way for Royal Borough residents |
A 1.5m × 0.91m trailer is a small box trailer. Plenty of hire and builders’ trailers are bigger, and Slough’s pages offer no permit or exception for a larger one.
How the weighbridge works. Slough residents sent to the Waste Transfer Station report to the weighbridge office by the first gate of the Chalvey depot. Staff inspect the vehicle to check that only household waste is being tipped, and may ask for proof of address and photo ID. Household waste is free there for Slough residents; anyone who does not live in Slough is charged.
| Weighbridge for residents | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 9am – 4pm (last entry 3.45pm) |
| Saturday | 9am – 12noon (last entry 11.45am) |
| Sunday and bank holidays | Closed |
The borrowed-van weekend trap
If you have a van for the weekend, the weighbridge is your only way in at Chalvey — and it closes at noon on Saturday and all day Sunday. You also need a hi-vis vest and a hard hat (both can be borrowed on site and must be handed back) and suitable footwear such as steel-toe-capped boots: in open-toed shoes you will not be allowed to tip. Staff cannot help unload.
DIY waste: the free allowance and the price list
Slough treats waste from repairs, alterations and landscaping as construction waste rather than household waste, so it can charge for it. Small amounts from your own projects are free, within limits:
- Each visit, two 50-litre bags (standard black sacks) or one large item up to 2m × 0.75m × 0.7m — about the size of a bath or a shower screen — is free
- You can bring DIY waste free up to four times in any four-week period
- Check in with staff before you unload, and pay for anything over the allowance before you tip it — card only
- Without proof of address and photo ID you are turned away, or you pay for all of it
- Mud and soil are not accepted, paid or not
Above the allowance, Chalvey charges per item. The main lines from the council’s price list:
| Price | Items |
|---|---|
| £3.20 | Bricks and rubble, cement, roof tiles, stones, gravel or sand (per 25-litre bag) · paving slab · fence panel or post · shed panel · internal door · flooring, decking or skirting (up to 2m × 1m) · timber offcuts (per 25-litre bag) · radiator · guttering (up to 10m) · roofing felt or loft insulation · bath panel · sink · taps · tiles (per 25-litre bag) |
| £3.50 | Lime mortar |
| £4.80 | Asbestos sheet (1m × 1m) — restrictions apply |
| £5.40 | Toilet cistern |
| £6.40 | Toilet pan · toilet seat · bidet · bathroom sink and pedestal · fitted bathroom cabinets · kitchen unit · empty oil tank |
| £7 | Bath and panel |
| £7.60 | Plaster or gypsum (per 25-litre bag) |
| £9 | Plasterboard sheet (up to 2m × 1m) |
| £9.60 | Kitchen worktop (up to 2m × 1m) |
| £12.80 | Window · external door · greenhouse panel · shower tray · shower screen or door · toilet pan, cistern and seat · fireplace · storage heater · wood burner or stove · empty water tank |
| £22.40 | Whole shed (up to 2m × 2m) |
| £25.60 | Boiler |
Smaller bags or broken-up waste are fine, but site staff have the final say on what counts as your free allowance. The plasterboard skip is in the Waste Transfer Station, not the main recycling area, so plan a load of boards around the weighbridge hours — and strip off tiles, wood and anything else attached first.
Cheaper than Buckinghamshire on every shared item
Every item that appears on both councils’ price lists costs less at Chalvey than at the Buckinghamshire sites Slough residents can also use. A 25-litre bag of rubble is £3.20 here against £4.20 at Burnham, a kitchen unit £6.40 against £8.30, a window £12.80 against £16.60, a whole shed £22.40 against £25.20 and a boiler £25.60 against £29.40. For a renovation load Chalvey is the cheaper tip — provided your vehicle gets under the barrier.
What Chalvey takes free — and the limits
For Slough and Royal Borough households, Chalvey takes the everyday range free of charge: garden waste, cardboard and paper, glass bottles and jars, cans, foil and scrap metal, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, cartons, carpet, wooden and other bulky furniture, books, CDs and DVDs, small electrical appliances, TVs and monitors, household batteries, low-energy bulbs, printer cartridges and cooking oil — though not, for now, upholstered seating (see below). Coffee pods are taken too, with separate containers for plastic and aluminium pods.
Some items are rationed to normal household amounts:
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Mattresses | 2, one visit a month (no return within 28 days); £24 a mattress over that |
| Household and garden chemicals | 5 litres, one visit a month (no return within 28 days) |
| Car batteries | 2 a year |
| Engine oil | 10 litres a year |
| Fluorescent tubes | 4 a year |
| Car and motorcycle tyres | 5 a year — see the note on charges below |
Hazardous waste — paint, strong cleaners, garden chemicals, car fluids, gas bottles and the like — must be in its original container or clearly labelled. Tell staff when you arrive and they will unlock the hazardous-chemical store, the Flambank, for you. Asbestos is accepted with restrictions, at £4.80 for a 1m × 1m sheet.
A note on tyres. Slough’s two pages agree on the five-a-year cap but not on the £5 charge: one applies it after the fifth tyre, the other charges £5 a tyre and refuses more than five. Ask at the gate first.
What Chalvey has stopped taking for now
Three temporary suspensions are in force, and they cover some of the most common reasons for a trip to the tip:
| Not accepted at the moment | Where the council points you |
|---|---|
| Sofas and other upholstered seating, because of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) | No alternative site is named |
| Textiles and clothes — Slough’s bring sites have stopped taking them too | Burnham; Stafferton Way (Royal Borough residents only); charity shops, for clean, reusable textiles |
| Fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers | Burnham, for Slough residents |
The seating ban is wider than most people expect. It covers sofas, sofa beds, armchairs, recliners, kitchen and dining chairs, garden furniture, stools and footstools, futons, bean bags and cushions — any household seating with leather, synthetic leather, fabric or foam in it.
If a sofa or armchair has to go while the ban lasts, our sofa disposal service collects upholstered furniture from the kerb or from any room in the house. For sofas and textiles, Burnham is open seven days a week while Langley is closed.
What Chalvey never accepts
The council says it is an offence to try to dispose of any of these at the recycling centre:
- Business, commercial or trade waste — that goes to the Waste Transfer Station, at commercial rates
- Clinical waste, and medicines, which go back to a chemist or GP surgery
- Invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed
- Mud or soil
- Explosives, such as flares
- Flammable liquids, such as petrol
Soil is the one that catches gardeners out. Chalvey takes garden waste free, but not the soil that comes with digging out a bed or levelling a lawn. The Buckinghamshire sites do take soil, as charged DIY waste at £4.20 per 25-litre bag beyond the free permit allowance.
Trade waste goes over the weighbridge
Businesses and tradespeople cannot use the recycling centre, and the council is explicit that leaving trade waste there is illegal. The household recycling centre is at the top of the Chalvey depot, through the second gate; commercial waste goes over the weighbridge at the bottom of the site, through the first gate.
| Commercial weighbridge | Detail |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | Monday to Friday 7am – 4pm; Saturday 7.30am – 12pm; closed Sundays and bank holidays; last entry 15 minutes before closing |
| General waste | £264 a tonne including VAT, minimum charge £47.52 |
| Garden waste for composting | £123.60 a tonne including VAT, minimum charge £22.25 |
Those are Slough’s 2026/27 rates, in force from 1 April 2026. Businesses must pay commercial rates and meet their legal duty of care for the waste they produce, so a builder clearing a customer’s house goes over the weighbridge even with a car-load.
Where else Slough residents can go
Slough Borough Council lists three recycling centres for its residents: Chalvey plus two Buckinghamshire sites, Burnham and Langley. With Langley shut, the realistic options this winter are:
| Site | Opening | Worth it for |
|---|---|---|
| Chalvey, White Hart Road SL1 2SF | 7 days; 9am–6pm summer, 9am–5pm winter | Cars under 1.7m; the lowest DIY charges |
| Burnham, Crowpiece Lane SL2 3TG | 7 days while Langley is closed; 9am–6pm summer, 9am–4pm winter | Fridges, freezers and textiles; vans, with a free Buckinghamshire permit |
| Beaconsfield, A40 London Road HP9 2XB | 7 days; 9am–6pm summer, 9am–4pm winter | Asbestos, which Burnham does not take; Buckinghamshire’s other suggested stand-in for Langley |
| Langley, Langley Park Road SL3 6DD | Closed — expected back before Easter 2027 | — |
At the Buckinghamshire sites, Slough residents do not pay the non-resident access fee (£28.80 to £472.70 a visit for other out-of-county users). Buckinghamshire’s rules still apply: proof of address, a free Buckinghamshire e-permit for a van, pickup or minibus or for DIY waste, and no tipper or tail-lift vehicles at all. Our Buckinghamshire waste permit guide covers each permit.
Langley’s closure has its own guide: Langley recycling centre closed until 2027 covers the nearest open alternatives, the winter hours, and where to take asbestos and large trailers in the meantime. If your load will not fit any tip’s rules, we offer rubbish removal and house clearance across Slough.
Royal Borough residents can use Chalvey, but not the Buckinghamshire sites without paying the access fee. Their own site is Stafferton Way in Maidenhead.
Tip run yourself, or a man-and-van collection?
For a car-load you can lift yourself, Chalvey is free and nothing we offer beats free. The sums change when the load is large, heavy, upholstered or in a van:
| Your job | Chalvey, doing it yourself | Collected by Van Thats Quick |
|---|---|---|
| A boot-load of household or garden waste you can lift | Free — bring proof of address and photo ID | Minimum load £95; garden bag run (up to 8 bags) £59 — the tip is cheaper |
| A small bathroom strip-out: bath and panel, toilet, basin and pedestal, four bags of tiles | About £32–£39 in DIY charges, depending on what your free allowance covers — if your car will take a bath | Small loads from £95, a quarter load from £195, carried out for you |
| A garden clearance too big for the car | Free for green waste, one car-load at a time | Garden waste: minimum £79, quarter load £139, half £215, full Luton £345 |
| A van-load of clearance | Not allowed in — weighbridge only, weekdays to 4pm and Saturday mornings | Half load from £320, a full Luton van from £495, loaded by a two-person crew |
| A sofa or armchair | Not accepted at the moment | Sofa disposal, from the kerb or any room |
| You need hands, not a tip — a move or a big lift | Staff cannot help unload | Man and van £89/hr for a two-person crew, 2-hour minimum £178; half day (4 hrs) £340; full day (8 hrs) £640 |
Every collection is priced by how much of our Luton your load fills, and a two-person crew does the loading:
| Load | Approx. volume | Our fixed price |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum charge | 1.5 cu yd | £95 |
| ¼ van | 7 cu yd | £195 |
| ½ van | 14 cu yd | £320 |
| ¾ van | 18 cu yd | £405 |
| Full van | 22.7 cu yd | £495 |
The honest rule of thumb: if it fits in your car, you can lift it and the site is open, take it to Chalvey. A collection earns its money when your vehicle is wrong for the barrier, the weighbridge has shut for the weekend, Chalvey is turning the item away, or the job would take four DIY visits and a month. We cover Slough, Burnham, Farnham Common, Stoke Poges, Iver and Maidenhead. For bin days, missed collections and the council’s bulky service, see our Slough waste collection guide.
Slough recycling centre FAQs
Where is Slough recycling centre?
Chalvey Household Waste Recycling Centre, White Hart Road, off Spackmans Way, Slough SL1 2SF. It is Slough Borough Council’s own site, open to residents of Slough and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.
What are the opening times at Chalvey recycling centre?
Every day, bank holidays included: 9am to 6pm from 1 April to 30 September and 9am to 5pm from 1 October to 31 March, with last entry 15 minutes before closing. It closes at 1pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and all day on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Do I need to book or get a permit for Chalvey tip?
No. There is nothing to book, and a vehicle under the 1.7m height barrier needs no permit. Bring proof of address, such as a utility bill, and photo ID, such as a driving licence or passport.
Can I take a van to Chalvey recycling centre?
Not into the recycling centre: vans and pickup trucks are not permitted. Slough residents in a van are sent to the Waste Transfer Station weighbridge on the same site, open Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm and Saturday 9am to 12noon, where household waste is free for Slough residents. Royal Borough residents use Stafferton Way in Maidenhead instead.
How much DIY waste can I take to Chalvey for free?
Two 50-litre bags, or one large item up to 2m by 0.75m by 0.7m, per visit, on up to four visits in any four-week period. Beyond that you pay per item, from £3.20 for a 25-litre bag of rubble to £25.60 for a boiler, by card only. Mud and soil are not accepted at all.
Does Chalvey tip take sofas?
Not at the moment. Chalvey has temporarily stopped accepting upholstered seating, such as sofas, armchairs, recliners and dining chairs, because of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). It has also paused textiles, and fridges and freezers.
Can Slough residents use Burnham tip?
Yes, without paying Buckinghamshire’s non-resident access fee. Burnham, on Crowpiece Lane SL2 3TG, is open seven days a week while Buckinghamshire’s Langley site is closed for drainage works; Langley is expected to reopen before Easter 2027.
What size trailer can I take to Chalvey?
A trailer up to 1.5 metres long and 0.91 metres wide. The entrance barrier is 1.7 metres (5ft 9in) high, and vans and pickups are not allowed in whatever their height.
Turned away at the Chalvey barrier?
Same-day collection across Slough, Langley, Burnham and Iver: van-loads, DIY waste and the furniture Chalvey is not taking, loaded by a two-person crew. From £95.