The Brennan Drop-off Station at 2400 Brennan Avenue is one of four such sites operated by the city for households on its own sanitation rolls, and it serves the near north side. It is not a landfill and it charges nothing, but entry is tightly controlled and a wasted trip is easy to make.

Opening times changed and many listings elsewhere are still wrong. The city's current schedule is Tuesday through Friday from 8am to 5pm and Saturday from 8am until midday, with the gate shut all day Sunday and all day Monday. Nine city holidays close it too: Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

To bring general waste you need two documents together - a copy or photo of a Fort Worth water bill dated within the last six months, with the sanitation charges visible in the Account Activity section, alongside a driving licence bearing the same address. Living in a Fort Worth flat means your licence alone gets you in, but only for recycling and household chemicals; everything else is reserved for account holders. Lending your paperwork to somebody else does not work either, because the city requires the account holder to come along in person. Nobody from outside the city may use the site, and no business waste is taken.

Quantities are capped and the caps are enforced. Home repair and remodelling debris is one visit a month and no more than five cubic yards. Passenger tyres are limited to four per household in any six months and the rims have to come off first. Computers and televisions are two every six months. Household chemicals are capped at twenty gallons per household every three months, fluorescent tubes at ten in the same period, and free document shredding at three boxes a visit or six boxes a quarter. Bring too much and the whole load is turned away rather than trimmed.

What goes in: bagged household rubbish, anything from your blue recycling cart, scrap metal such as guttering, rebar, bed rails, empty grills, mailboxes, pans and car parts though not engine parts, bulky trash, brush bagged in Kraft sacks, fridges and air conditioners with the food out but the Freon left in, electronics, drained lawn equipment, fire extinguishers and clean uncoloured Styrofoam. What does not: uncovered or unsecured loads, loose leaves and grass, waste from a rental property you let out, concrete, rock, dirt and ceramic tile, roofing, asbestos, any pressurised cylinder including propane and helium, ammunition, radioactive material such as smoke detectors, and anything with a title like a moped or jet ski.

Vehicle rules catch people out as much as the waste rules. Only single-axle trailers are permitted, no longer than eight feet, no wider than six, and stacked to a ceiling of three feet - about five cubic yards all told. Refused at the gate: any trailer running on two axles, any box truck, and any vehicle carrying company markings. You unload the vehicle yourself, children under twelve and pets stay inside it, and smoking on site is banned. Shingles and tenant-generated rubbish belong at Southeast Landfill instead, 6288 Salt Road, and that site is not free. The city answers questions on (817) 392-1234 through its 311 service.