It's holiday time, which means more waste is making its way into your home by way of presents, decor and all those holiday goodies. Find out how and where you can dispose of the extra holiday waste with our roundup of holiday recycling programs in the Triangle area:

The Town of Cary will begin pickup of Christmas trees and vegetative material such as wreaths and garland as a part of regular curbside yard waste collection on Jan. 3.

The City of Durham will be hosting a paper-shredding, e-waste and Christmas tree recycling event on Saturday, Jan. 14, at the Sears parking lot at Northgate Mall.

Nearly all electronics with a cord will be accepted for recycling, including:

Chatham County is offering holiday programs to recycle trees, wrapping paper, cooking oil and even nonworking strings of lights.

Free tree-cycling will be offered at the Main Solid Waste & Recycling Facility at 720 County Landfill Road on the following dates:

Don't toss that holiday waste — recycle it with Wake County's Holiday Wrap-Up recycling program.

Residents can drop off Christmas trees (without lights, ornamentation, etc.), wrapping paper (excluding foil and bows), holiday greeting cards, corrugated cardboard, chipboard (i.e. cereal boxes, paper roll tubes, etc.), SBS Board (i.e. shirt and gift boxes), magazines and catalogs at the following convenience centers:

I always like to say I'm frugal, not cheap.

I absolutely don't mind spending on things that are worthwhile. Items that are long-lasting, high-quality, much-needed or long-desired.

But things that are tossed in the trash almost immediately after buying or using -- not so much.

Things like wrapping paper.

I used to wrap on the cheap by purchasing my giftwrap at 90 percent off clearance after the holidays. That saved me plenty of money, for sure.

But what I really wanted was giftwrap that was easy on the wallet AND easy on the environment.

I thought I'd share a few ideas I've come up with -- in hopes of saving you a few dollars and the planet a few trees.

Solar energy is to dye for at N.C. State University where researchers have developed a new dye that should significantly boost solar panel performance.

Dubbed NCSU-10, the "sensitizer" is able to harvest more light than other dyes in use now. A third-party analysis determined that NCSU-10 offered 14 percent more power density than current sensitizers.

NCSU-10 could not only make solar panels more efficient, but the dye's ability to absorb light at lower concentrations could allow for solar cells that are transparent enough to be windows.

More enlightenment on the topic can found at news.ncsu.edu.

N.C. GreenPower, a Raleigh nonprofit that accepts public donations to subsidize green energy, is offering the equivalent of a half-price discount on its carbon offset program.

As a result, a donor can now reduce 1,000 pounds of someone else's greenhouse gas emissions with every $4 contribution. The donations go to efforts that reduce emissions of carbon dioxide or methane, typically tree-planting projects or technologies that flare off methane gas at landfills or hog lagoons.

The N.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates the carbon offsets program in this state, approved N.C. GreenPower's new price plan today. The new prices are effective retroactively to Aug. 1.

For the past three years, N.C. GreenPower had been offering to offset 500 pounds of greenhouse gases for $4, but the organization is doubling the value because the market price for carbon offsets is dropping.

Such offset programs are popular among people who are concerned about global warming and are willing to pay others to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Skeptics dismiss such programs as guilt fees that pay for programs that would have been implemented anyway.

More than 25,000 pounds of paper, electronics, rigid plastics, plastic bags and film were collected during Raleigh's second America Recycles Day collection drive, Keep NC Beautiful reports.
 

N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation has announced Lake Waccamaw has been named as the state's top park.

Lake Waccamaw, which is located in Columbus County, was chosen from among 35 state parks and four recreation areas. State parks director Lewis Ledford says Lake Waccamaw won top honors partly because of participation in community events and environmental education.