Petersfield recycling centre on Bedford Road needs a booked slot, opens 9am to 4pm from 1 October, shuts for lunch at 1pm and is closed on Christmas Day.
Petersfield’s household waste recycling centre is on Bedford Road, GU32 3LJ, and you cannot just turn up. Hampshire County Council requires a booked appointment for every visit, and from 1 October the site closes at 4pm. Everything on this page is from the county council’s own pages for the site, its booking system and its permit and charging rules, checked on 25 September 2026.
The quick answer
- Winter hours: 9am to 4pm, 1 October to 28 February, then 9am to 5pm in March and 9am to 6pm from April.
- Closed 1pm to 1.30pm every day, and closed all day on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
- You must book a slot online or through the OurHants app, up to a week ahead. Same-day slots depend on availability.
- Vans, pick-ups and trailers over 1.8m need a permit, and trailers over 3m are turned away.
Opening hours
The site is open seven days a week, with the half-hour lunchtime closure that catches people who arrive at one o’clock (Hampshire County Council, Petersfield HWRC).
| Period | Hours |
|---|---|
| 1 October to 28 February | 9am to 4pm |
| 1 to 31 March | 9am to 5pm |
| 1 April to 30 September | 9am to 6pm |
| Every day | Closed 1pm to 1.30pm |
| Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day | Closed |
In 2026 Christmas Day is a Friday and Boxing Day a Saturday, so the site is shut on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 December and open again on Sunday 27 December, then closed on Friday 1 January 2027. The county council has not published any other festive changes. The site has steps, which the council flags for anyone who finds them difficult.
The Alton and Bordon sites keep the same hours. Our bin collection days page links to all three.
Booking a slot
Every Hampshire resident has to book before visiting any of the county’s recycling centres. Bookings open a week ahead, can be made on the county council’s booking page or the OurHants app, and can be cancelled or moved from the link in the confirmation email. Book using the registration of the car you will actually drive. If you are hiring a van, book it as a hire vehicle and bring the hire agreement; hire vans are allowed without a permit for hires of three days or fewer.
Pedestrians are not allowed in. Cyclists can book a slot.
Vans, trailers and permits
The county decides what counts as a van itself and does not use DVLA classes. You need a permit, valid for one vehicle, if you come in anything with no rear windows, no rear seats, an open or flat back, or a separate cab, which covers pick-ups. Trailers up to 1.8m long need nothing, between 1.8m and 3m need a permit, and over 3m are refused. Those lengths are the box, not the tow bar. Horse boxes and anything over 3.5 tonnes are banned. A fully fitted campervan does not need a permit (permit rules).
Who can use it
Hampshire residents use the site free. Because Petersfield sits on the county boundary, West Sussex residents can use Petersfield and Havant free of charge too. Residents of Portsmouth and Southampton can use any Hampshire site. Anyone else from outside the county pays £13.50 a visit at booking and cannot bring DIY waste on the free allowance.
DIY waste and what it costs
Soil, rubble, plasterboard and cement-bonded asbestos are the chargeable materials. Each household gets a free allowance of eight 50-litre rubble sacks or four single items every four weeks, tracked against the address you give when booking, and only for work you did yourself. Over the allowance, rubble is £3 a sack or item, plasterboard £6 a sack or £10 a sheet. Petersfield does not take asbestos at all: that goes to Andover, Basingstoke, Efford, Netley or Portsmouth by prior phone booking (DIY and chargeable waste).
What is accepted, and the limits
Most household items go: batteries, cardboard, carpets, mattresses, furniture, wood, electricals, paint in sealed tins, garden waste, scrap metal and textiles. The limits worth knowing before you load the car:
- Paint: five litres per household per month.
- Engine oil: ten litres per household every six months, in a sealed container.
- Animal waste: two double-bagged bin bags per household per day.
- Gas bottles: up to 15kg, propane or butane, but not Calor bottles, which Calor takes back.
- Fridges and freezers: accepted whole, but the county says acceptance cannot be guaranteed because of national recycling capacity problems, and you may be sent to another site once storage is full.
- Upholstered seating: sofas, armchairs and cushions must be kept whole because of the chemicals in the foam. Ask staff where to put them.
- Railway sleepers: not accepted, as treated hazardous wood.
- Real Christmas trees: go in the green waste container. Subscribers to the council’s garden waste service can also leave a tree out for the first collection of January; our Christmas bin collections page has the dates as they are published.
Knives and scissors are taken if wrapped and handed to staff. Furniture in good condition is sold on in the site’s reuse area.
Getting there
Bedford Road runs off the B2199 on the eastern edge of the town, a short drive from the station roundabout. Our roadworks page covers any closures on the way, and the parking page the town centre car parks.
Have your say