photo by: City of Lawrence

The Lawrence City Commission meets at City Hall as part of its meeting Jan. 10, 2023. Commissioner Amber Sellers participated virtually.

Story updated at 10:26 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023:

Lawrence city leaders have expressed support for moving forward with a ban on single-use plastic bags in the community.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission directed city staff to bring back an ordinance for future consideration that would ban certain single-use plastic bags. The commissioners also discussed the possibility of charging a fee at checkout or creating an educational campaign, but they agreed that a ban was the best option.

“This has been discussed for a long time, since I’ve been on the commission, and I do believe that it’s time to initiate an ordinance on a ban on plastic bags,” Mayor Lisa Larsen said. “The idea of a fee, I think, complicates it way too much.”

The city’s Sustainability Advisory 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.

The commission heard comment from 15 people during the public comment portion of the meeting, three of whom were against the ban or preferred the city to just do an educational campaign. Those who spoke in favor of a ban expressed concerns about the environmental damage from plastic bags and the pollution created in the production of plastics. One man said he’d been using the same reusable bag for 16 years, and he calculated that in that time he’d saved himself from using about 2,500 single-use plastic bags. Others recognized the convenience of plastic bags and that a ban would require some people to change their habits, but that they thought people could transition to reusable bags.

The commission directed staff to work on an ordinance, which would need to cover how the ban would be enforced. City Attorney Toni Wheeler said there could be budget implications for enforcement, and that any additional expenses would need to be approved by the commission. Wheeler estimated a draft ordinance could come back to the commission for an initial discussion in March.

The board and city staff will also work on an educational campaign regarding the proposed changes.