Lawrence’s Sustainability Advisory Board decided Wednesday to work with environmental groups on a proposal to restrict single-use plastic bags in the city.

The 10-member board unanimously voted to have one of its members, Ian Spomer, meet with members of the Sustainability Action Network, the Sierra Club Wakarusa Group and the Lawrence Environmental Teams United for Sustainability (LETUS) who asked Wednesday that the board take up the issue.

Spomer and the groups will talk about details of a proposal, which would include either banning single-use bags or imposing a fine on shoppers who use them, or a phased approach that would comprise a combination of both methods.

A proposal would be brought back to the advisory board, which could vote to advance it to the City Commission.

“We’re not going down this path right now,” Spomer said. “We’re just discussing it.”

Dale Nimz, chairman of the board, said a ban on single-use plastic bags was named as a priority of the board in goal-setting sessions this spring. It was not listed as the board’s top three priorities, which are energy conservation, water conservation and land-use planning.

“This is not necessarily our highest priority, but it is a priority,” Nimz said. “And if it’s a priority for other people, it becomes more important than us.”

Lori Hutfles, one of the residents who brought the idea to the board, said the environmental groups saw it as an “immediate win.”

“We wanted to capture the attention of the people who live in this town and make them realize they can do something to make a difference,” Hutfles said. “This is a step. This is something tangible.”

Eileen Horn, the city and county sustainability coordinator, suggested the board and environmental groups work out details such as what types of retailers would be banned from providing plastic bags, how a ban would be enforced, what kinds of bags would be restricted and how much time retailers would have before a ban went into effect.

Horn also suggested looking to cities that have already adopted successful ordinances and making a plan for citizen outreach, which would include answers to potentially frequent questions such as what residents could use to pick up their pet waste.

“As this has happened historically, cities have gotten smarter and know how to mitigate the negativity around it and make sure small businesses don’t struggle with it,” Horn said. “I think a ton of research can help mitigate concerns.”

Horn said the advisory board would need to decide in the future whether it wanted to champion the proposal or support the environmental groups in presenting it.

Board member Sharon Ashworth said she would want to know more before supporting a proposal. She asked Wednesday how big a percentage of litter in the city was plastic bags. Another board member asked how much it cost the city to pick up littered bags.

Kathy Richardson, the city’s solid waste division manager, said those numbers would be hard to come up with.

“To make the argument to the public about the plastic bag bans, it’s really good to quantify the need and problem,” Ashworth said.

Board members briefly discussed whether they’d suggest a ban or fee.

Michael Almon with Sustainability Action Network said a fee of 5 to 10 cents would be better received than an outright ban.

Spomer said he thought a small fee wouldn’t lead to much change.

“Lawrence is a pretty affluent town,” Spomer said. “Charging someone 5 cents to use a bag is not going to get the vast majority of people to stop doing it.”

It’s unsure when the idea will be discussed further. The board did not outline a timeline for when the proposal would be brought back before the advisory board.

Thad Holcombe, a member of the Sierra Wakarusa Group who helped introduce the idea to the board, said he was pleased with Wednesday’s discussion.

“I felt they took us seriously,” he said. “We’ll try to kind of summarize things so it is a clean proposal that people can discuss more,” he said.

In other business, board member Daniel Poull asked whether the city’s decision to include glass pickup in the new curbside recycling program should be reconsidered.

Poull said he read the Lawrence Journal-World’s article from Oct. 18 that reported Lawrence’s new curbside recycling program had led to less glass being recycled and had cost the city $240,000 in fees over the past year for mixing glass with other materials.

Richardson said it was incorrect that the city has collected less glass with the curbside program. The issue was dropped.