Greenford Recycling Centre Suffers Compactor Breakdown
Residents must take any general waste to sites in other boroughs
The centre remains open for collection of other types of waste. Picture: Greener Ealing
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January 12, 2026
Greenford’s main recycling centre has been forced to stop accepting general household rubbish after a mechanical failure left the site without a working compactor, Ealing Council has confirmed. The council announced that the Greenford Road Reuse and Recycling Centre is currently unable to process any non‑recyclable waste and is directing residents to alternative sites outside the borough until repairs can be completed.
According to the council’s official update, the issue is significant enough that the site cannot safely or legally accept general rubbish. The statement reads: “Greenford Centre cannot take general rubbish because our compactor is broken. Please go to another rubbish and recycling site instead. We can still take recycling as normal.”
The Greenford facility, located on Greenford Road (UB6 9AP), remains open for all standard recycling streams, including paper, plastics, metals, glass, garden waste and bulky recyclable items. Opening hours are unchanged, with the site operating from 8am to 4pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and closing every Wednesday and Thursday. Residents must continue to book a time slot before visiting, as those arriving without a booking will be turned away.
The disruption came at a time when the site was busy following the Christmas and New Year period, when household waste volumes rise sharply. West London Waste, which oversees waste services across the region, has advised residents to consider whether items can be reused, donated or recycled elsewhere before travelling to a disposal site.
Greenford is Ealing’s primary household reuse and recycling centre, handling a wide range of materials from electricals and furniture to garden waste and scrap metal.
Mechanical failures at waste facilities are not uncommon. A previous incident in Greenford in 2020 saw a fire damage part of a mechanical compactor at a separate recycling site, highlighting the vulnerability of such equipment to breakdowns and the disruption that can follow.
Ealing Council has not yet provided a timeline for repairs or confirmed when general rubbish collections at the site will resume. In the meantime, residents are being encouraged to use alternative household waste and recycling centres in neighbouring boroughs or to delay non-essential disposal until the compactor is fixed.
Councillor Athena Zissimos, Liberal Democrat Opposition spokesperson for Environment, Streets, Parks and Climate Change, said, "Liberal Democrats say that only having one recycling centre in the whole Borough becomes a huge problem, when even that is not properly operational. How long will the recycling centre be unable to take on general waste? How much more fly-tipping will there be, when residents give up on doing the right thing? Liberal Democrats want to see the Council have back up options and give residents more choice instead of making things more difficult or costly."
Further updates are expected to be published on the council’s website.
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