Hood County's Citizens Collection Station occupies 244 Bray Street in Granbury, off Coke Court from Highway 377, and the county is unusually direct about what it is not: this is a recycling and bulk-waste site, and it does not take your household bin bags.

The opening pattern is the strangest of any facility we list, and copying it down is worth the trouble. Tuesday runs 8am to 1pm. Wednesday does not open until noon and then runs to 5pm. Thursday and Friday return to 8am until 1pm. Saturday is the long day, 8am through to 3pm. Sunday and Monday are closed. Turning up on a Wednesday morning is the classic wasted journey here. A second quirk: the Environmental Health office is shut on Saturdays, so nobody can answer a phone query about the station on the one day it is open longest. The county also notes it stays open through most bad weather but will close for safety when there is ice.

Four categories are refused and each one sends people away disappointed. Household garbage - kitchen and bathroom waste - is not accepted. Neither is commercial waste from businesses or contractors. Nor hazardous material such as fuel, paint and pesticides. And brush and limbs do not belong here either; they go to the Hood County Brush Yard at 1510 Weatherford Highway, which opens only on Wednesday mornings between 8am and noon, on 817-579-3304.

What the station does take: bulk waste for a charge, and a broad recycling stream free of charge covering metal, glass, paper, cardboard, plastics numbered 1 to 5 and 7, antifreeze and oil filters. Tyres are accepted with the first four free of charge and the county asking that they come off the rims first. Electronics are taken, though the county classes them as waste rather than recycling. There is one contradiction on the county's own pages that we are not going to resolve by guessing: the collection station page lists motor oil as not being accepted, while the Environmental Health department page includes oil among the recyclables. Ring first if that is your reason for going.

On price, we are carrying no figures. Bulk waste is charged, and the county maintains a fee schedule, but the current version is not published on the collection station page itself. Fees were raised at least once since the station opened, so the numbers floating around directory sites should not be trusted. Call 817-579-3288 on a weekday for the current rates.