Montgomery County Precinct 2 runs this centre on Friendship Drive in Magnolia, and it is a genuine sorting facility rather than a tip - you cannot bring household rubbish. What it does take is unusually broad for a county recycling centre: the full container and paper list, plus scrap metal, appliances, clean plastic bags and film, and electronics including televisions, monitors, CPUs, printers, scanners and fax machines.

The rule that matters most is stated in capitals on the county's own notice: all items must be sorted and clean before arrival, or you sort them yourself on site. Unattended drop-offs are refused. Glass must be rinsed and lids removed, and window panes, drinking glasses, ceramics and Pyrex are not glass for these purposes and will be turned away. Styrofoam is refused. So are household batteries.

Two practical points. Payment, where any applies, is cash or check only - the centre does not take credit cards. And the opening hours are genuinely contested between the county's own pages: the main county site lists Monday to Saturday 7am to 5pm, another county page lists Wednesday to Saturday 7am to 5pm, and the precinct's own site lists Wednesday to Saturday 7.30am to 4.30pm as the normal hours. The precinct runs the facility, so we would plan around the narrower Wednesday-to-Saturday window and ring first on (832) 934-2193. County holidays close the site.

One local date worth marking: the precinct's annual Heavy Trash Clean-Up falls on the weekend before Magnolia ISD's spring break, which is when the genuinely bulky household items get taken. If you are sitting on something the centre will not accept the rest of the year, that is the weekend to wait for.