You can't always return the holiday gifts you received, but you can drop off the wrapping paper and boxes that they came in to the Holly Hill Resource Recovery Facility.
Since Christmas, the Holly Hill facility has been a flurry of activity, with SUVs parked everywhere while residents unload their holiday excess.
Tom Wasson of Greenwich was among those to drop off wrapping paper and folded holiday shopping bags yesterday.
"I do this every year, along with general cleaning out of closets," Wasson said.
Alice Mullins of Cos Cob yesterday made her second trip to Holly Hill since Christmas.
"We were here on Saturday, and it was lined up the street with cars," she said.
Orlando Soto, a Holly Hill employee, helped people put items in the appropriate bins for mixed paper, cardboard, bottles and Styrofoam packing "peanuts."
"It's always busy this time of year, every Christmas," he said. "People are off of work and have time and lots of Christmas paper."
He said the bin for mixed paper normally is changed only once a week, but because it has filled to the rim with colorful wrapping paper it has been changed twice since Christmas.
Almost all the parking spaces were taken at the recycling center yesterday, with families busy shaking out bags full of crumpled wrapping paper and swinging cardboard boxes into the various bins.
Amid the recycling activity, some also dropped off toys from previous holidays and other unwanted items at the Goodwill donation next to the recycling bins. Others dropped off used books at The Book Shed, which is also nearby.
"I've been buried today. One guy brought in 18 big shopping bags full of books," said Doug Francefort, who runs the book exchange, a volunteer nonprofit program.
"I come here all the time, bring books in, take books out, which is wonderful because I read a lot," said Helen Clarke of Greenwich as she selected a book at The Book Shed. "Plus if you don't like it, you haven't bought it."