Personally, when met with a decision to reduce waste or reduce energy use, I choose to reduce waste. For example, it takes less water to use liquid-free hand soap, but the process of creating the packaging takes oil and other resources, not to mention creates a lot of waste when people discard the empty containers. Simply wash your hands and turn off the water between the lathering part and the rinsing part of said process and you’re golden.

Since I am a conservative, it is generally assumed that I do not care about the environment. Judge me after this opinion column.

LINCOLN, Neb. — I urge the University of Nebraska to rethink the use of synthetic turf for campus recreation fields. We know this stuff is bad for us, just like car exhaust and ultraviolet radiation are. I don’t want to find out how much is too much the hard way, like we did with lead paint, asbestos and DDT.

I tried to recycle a plastic bag this week. Problem was, I didn’t know how. There was a slot for papers, a hole for plastic bottles and a cushy spot for good ol’ trash. But none seemed accepting of plastic bags. I found myself baffled.

Retailers have as much of a responsibility to cut down on plastic bag use as consumers, and by simply supplying reusable bags as an affordable alternative to plastic we can begin to cut down on plastic bag use.

Although they seem small and harmless, plastic bags spend most of their lives in landfills where they can take hundreds of years to decompose, according to National Geographic, where the by-product can be toxic. Only about 5 percent of plastic bags are recycled, and even then the process of recycling takes energy. Plastic bags also tend to end up as litter, which can be dangerous to wildlife that choke on them.