Whether they’re meant to reduce energy use, save on electric bills or brighten up holiday displays, LED Christmas lights are more popular than ever this year.

“I’m out of them completely,” said Phil Cook, owner of Cook’s Hardware in Gorham.

Though Melissa and Chad Dudley of Gorham, who were searching for the energy-efficient lights at the store last week, will have to fall back on the standard strings, Mary Jane LeCours, a store clerk at Cook’s Hardware, was able to pick up a pack before they were all gone.

“They look nice and they’re more visible,” LeCours said. “I expect my light bill will be nothing.”

Using LED (light emitting diode) lights is one of several suggestions from ecomaine, the regional waste management facility, as a way to be less wasteful during the holidays. The company also urges people to reuse or recycle all wrapping paper, gift boxes and shopping bags.

All around southern Maine, people and communities are looking for new ways to reduce energy costs and recycle and reuse the trees, wrapping paper and packaging that traditionally winds up at the curb around the holidays. However, waste management officials say more could be done.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of household garbage in the country generally increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, from 4 million tons to 5 million tons, and about 33 million live Christmas trees are sold in North America every year.

Many public works departments collect Christmas trees to chop into mulch and be reused by the community and its residents.

Bob Malley, director of Cape Elizabeth Public Works, said the town collects about 2,000 trees, which, he said, creates a sizable pile of mulch.

“Some people take it away and use it in their gardens,” he said. “It smells nice.”

The service is also available in Gorham, but Melissa and Chad Dudley take the matter into their own hands. After the holidays, Chad Dudley cuts up the tree and puts the pieces in the woods on their property.

“We put it back where it came from,” he said. “We recycle.”

As the trees have grown in South Portland’s Mill Creek park and the price of the electricity has risen, it has been more and more of a drain on the city to put on the Christmas light display that marks the holiday season for its residents. But this year, the city was able to hang more lights than ever – without blowing a fuse.

Town Manager Jim Gailey was thinking ahead this summer when he purchased 10,000 LED lights to hang from the trees.

“We’re moving toward being a more energy-efficient city,” said Gailey, who added that making the decision to purchase the lights – a $9,800 cost that will reduce the energy use by over 80 percent – was “an easy thing to do.”

These are just a couple ways towns and people are trying to cut back on the large amount of energy that’s expended and waste that’s produced during the holidays.

Heather Chandler, a Westbrook resident and publisher of the Sunrise Guide, a coupon book for healthy and sustainable living in southern Maine, suggests shopping locally for both gifts and food for holiday dinners.

“It keeps money in our local economy, and foods are being trucked around the country or shipped from South America,” she said. “There’s a lot less emissions.”

Chandler also encouraged giving gifts that don’t take up a lot of packaging, promote sustainable living and give back to environmentally conscious organizations, like a membership to the Maine Audubon Society.

“You’re really giving twice,” she said.

John Rand of Raymond suggested buying the Sunrise Guide itself as a Christmas gift.

“It is a great idea, and more folks should get it, and use it,” he said.

Rand and his wife, Lori, said they try to be environmentally conscious all year long, but think that Christmas is “a good time to practice our green lifestyle.”

Heidi Will of Scarborough said her children make their teachers gifts out of empty jars of baby food. They wrap the jars, which they get from their neighbor, with double-sided tape and decorate them with glitter and beads, then put a candle inside.

“We tend to give gifts that we don’t have to go to the store and buy,” she said. “Tonight, I made sugar nuts for my neighbors.”

Jetta Antonakos, of the Waste Management and Recycling Program in the State Planning Office, said one way she encourages people to have a “zero-waste” holiday is to give the gift of an experience rather than something tangible.

“People have too much stuff,” she said, and rather than give them more you can, “do something as simple as spending time together doing a favorite thing,” which is not only valuable for the experience itself but for the memories it creates, she said. For example, she said, offer to help with chores, set a date to bake together or make time for a trip to the bowling alley.

But if packaging is a must, Antonakos likes recyclable gift wrap and not foil or plastic. She also uses real plates, cups and silverware and cloth napkins for her holiday meals, not plastic and paper.

At One Earth Natural Food Store in Shapleigh, owner Alissa Laitres said this year, the store sold Wrapsacks, a reusable gift bag made of recycled cotton.

“It’s an alternative to gift-wrapping,” she said.

Each bag has a unique code that can be tracked online as the bag is reused.

“They go around the country. It’s pretty cool,” she said. “It’s kind of a unique gift.”

Though individual efforts can go a long way, towns and cities have their responsibilities for keeping the waste to a minimum during the holidays.

Like South Portland, the Sanford Fire Department has decorated Central Station with energy-efficient LED lights to save on energy costs.

According to Assistant Chief Jeff Rowe, the decision to switch to LED Christmas lights for the seasonal exterior display at Central Station on Main Street was made after a group of firefighters made the case that the additional cost of the bulbs would be made back in just over two years.

“The strings were getting old. Some worked. Some didn’t. We recycled what we could by using the good bulbs in the older strings at South Sanford and Springvale stations. The rest were thrown in the trash,” he said.

Rowe projected an estimated savings of 1,525 kilowatt hours over the course of the 35-day holiday season, from Thanksgiving through the new year.

“We project our use would decrease from about 1,550 kilowatt hours to 28.7 kilowatt hours,” he said.

Based on a municipal electric rate of approximately 9 cents per kilowatt hour, that’s a cost savings of about $135, and it cost only about $300 for the new strings of LED lights for the station, he said.

Still, for some, it’s hard not to go all out on the holidays.

Rikki Phillips, who has had one of the largest displays of Christmas lights and decorations in Lebanon for over a decade, said he recently considered switching to LED lights, but between the extra cost and aesthetics, he couldn’t be convinced to switch.

“The lights are so small – like the red or blue light on a VCR or DVD player – and my house is so big, I was afraid they wouldn’t show up,” he said.

“They cost five to seven times the price of regular Christmas lights,” he said. “They are energy-efficient, but it would take years to make up the price of the lights themselves in energy savings” from Central Maine Power.

In order to promote purchasing LED lights, this year, Efficiency Maine, a Maine Public Utilities Commission program, is offering coupons for those who purchased the lights.

According to Nicole Clegg, spokeswoman for the commission, the amount of energy used to light one regular bulb is the same amount it takes to light a whole strand of LED lights.

“A lot of people seem to want to buy them because Efficiency Maine offers that discount. And they’re being promoted more. I think more people are aware of them, and are asking for them,” said Doni Bell, assistant manager of Aubuchon Hardware in Windham.

Along with the what lights to buy comes with a debate about what to hang them on.

Ginny Moody, one of the owners at Moody’s Nursery & Garden Center in Saco, said it takes more energy to manufacture an artificial Christmas tree than it does to grow one, and that artificial trees are environmentally unsound because they are made with petroleum products.

“What people don’t seem to understand is that Christmas trees are grown as a crop, just like pumpkins, potatoes or corn. They’re grown to be cut down,” Moody said.

Though Heidi Will understands the argument against artificial trees, she said her family has had the same one up in their Scarborough home for 10 years. To her, that’s 10 trees saved, and more to come.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t last another 20,” she said.