photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A cart of groceries in plastic bags is pictured Thursday, June 30, 2022, at a Lawrence grocery store.

City leaders will soon discuss policy options to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags in the community, including banning them, charging a fee at checkout or creating an educational campaign.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will once again take up the topic, which has been in discussion for more than four years.

A group of elementary students from Kennedy Elementary brought their concerns about the harmful impact of plastic bags on the environment to the City Commission in 2018. The city’s Sustainability Advisory Board subsequently considered the topic and submitted a recommendation in 2019 for a 16 cent per bag fee for both plastic and paper bags. The commission then directed city staff to look into options related to both fees and bans, but the process was delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for state legislation prohibiting such regulations. The commission then asked the board to restart the discussion in May 2021.

The board then took up the issue again and moved away from the idea of a fee. The board voted in June 2021 to recommend an ordinance that would ban single-use plastic bags provided by grocery stores and other businesses.

The board’s draft ordinance prohibits single-use disposable plastic bags, defined as any bag less than 4 mils thick — about the thickness of a piece of paper — provided to a consumer by an establishment for the purpose of transporting food, beverages, goods or other merchandise. The ordinance would cover grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses that provide single-use bags at checkout. It would not include single-use plastic bags used for produce or reusable bags made of plastic that are designed for repeated use. The ordinance also called for an educational campaign about the environmental impact of single-use plastic bags to accompany the ban.

City leaders indicated in July that they were interested in further discussing regulations on single-use plastic bags, with the idea of an outright ban or a fee remaining on the table. Commissioners didn’t indicate specifically whether they were in favor of the recommendation for a ban, rather than a fee, but agreed that they would like city staff to review options and bring the topic back to the commission for further discussion.

A city staff memo to the commission states that the options for the reduction of single-use plastic bags discussion are an ordinance that establishes a per-bag fee, an ordinance that enacts a ban on plastic bags or the development of a communitywide educational campaign to encourage the use of sustainable alternatives to plastic bags. The memo states that city staff will provide a brief presentation of the three policy options and look to the commission for direction on which option, if any, should be pursued for further action.

The Lawrence City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.