Smithville's recycling centre works on a membership model, which is rare in Texas and easy to fall foul of. Since 1 January 2024 every household using the site needs an annual card: $50 a year for residents, $100 a year for non-residents. Cards are issued at City Hall, 317 Main Street, not at the centre itself, so the first trip has to be made in town.

Once you hold a card, the site at 404 Royston Street is straightforward. It handles the standard household streams: newspaper including glossy inserts, magazines and catalogues; office paper; corrugated cardboard boxes and brown paper sacks; plastics numbered 1 and 2, which covers soft drink bottles and milk jugs; and aluminium, steel and food and beverage cans. Used motor oil and oil filters are taken as well, but only those two.

Preparation is expected rather than optional. Rinse containers and take the lids off, flatten and bundle all boxes, bag paper in brown grocery sacks or bundle it, bring oil in sealed containers and drain the filters first.

Two categories are firmly refused. The first is liquids and chemicals — no antifreeze, hydraulic oil, gasoline, kerosene, diesel or chemicals of any description, though the city asks you to ring for instructions rather than simply dumping them. The second is problem glass: no light bulbs, plate glass, tempered glass, mirrors, ceramics or drinking glasses.

The centre trades Tuesday through Saturday from 8am to 5pm and is shut on Sunday and Monday. Public Works, which runs it, is based at 1001 SE Martin Luther King Drive.