Kendall County's solid waste collection station is at 46 Spanish Pass Road in Boerne, and the first thing to understand is a legal limit rather than a price. By state law the site may take household waste only. Commercial and contractor waste is refused outright, and the county spells out what it means by that: building materials, shingles, wood, lumber, siding, fencing, paint cans, propane tanks, tyres, concrete, soil and rocks. Anything with a refrigerant in it - a fridge, a freezer, a working air-conditioning unit - is also turned away.

The Boerne site opens on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday only, from 9am to 4.30pm, on 830-537-4542. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays are closed, which makes a mid-week trip a coin flip if you have not checked. The county runs a second, much smaller operation at Comfort, 28 FM473, open only on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays monthly, 8am to 4pm, on 830-331-8251.

Where the county is unusually helpful is pricing, because almost everything is charged per item rather than by weight, and the whole list is published. Bagged rubbish is $2 for a small bag up to seventeen gallons and $3 for a large one between eighteen and fifty. A curbside-style wheeled container of fifty to ninety-six gallons costs $10. A whole pickup truck load starts at $30 and rises from there.

Bulky household goods each carry their own figure. A carpet of eight by ten feet is $15, and anything larger starts at $25. An overstuffed chair or recliner is $15, as is a mattress or box spring of any size. A couch or sofa is $25.

Metal items are priced separately again and mostly cheaply. Batteries cost $3. A microwave is $7. Ten dollars covers a dishwasher, a washing machine, a dryer, a cooking range or stove, a lawn mower, a gas grill or barbecue pit, and anything filed under miscellaneous. An air conditioner is also $10 provided the compressor has been removed - with the compressor still in it, the refrigerant rule applies and it will not be accepted at all. A thirty or forty gallon water heater is $15.

One gap worth naming: brush does not appear on this facility's accepted list. The county runs a separate brush site and a separate recycling operation, so garden waste and recyclables are unlikely to belong here. Ring before loading them.