Nips, the popular miniature alcohol bottles, could soon leave the shelves of Oak Bluffs package stores. 

But only if they are banned in Edgartown, too. 

The Oak Bluffs select board signaled Tuesday that it plans to put an article to town meeting that would ban the sale of nip bottles, and asked town staff to include language that would make the prohibition go into effect only if Edgartown also bans them.

The proposed Oak Bluffs ban was mulled over at the board’s meeting Tuesday, where liquor store owners were invited to weigh in on the idea. The ban comes after a long history of public complaints about plastic and town litter. Several towns across the state, including Nantucket and Falmouth, have banned the selling of miniature bottles in an attempt to reduce single-use plastics and curb litter problems. 

“Oak Bluffs is pretty much flooded with nips,” said board member Brian Packish. “We recently banned water bottles and you’ll pretty much find 100 nips for every water bottle you find.” 

Many attendees agreed that litter is a pressing issue in Oak Bluffs, especially in the summer months. 

Sherry Countryman, president of the Lagoon Pond Association, claimed that nips are the main culprit of Oak Bluffs litter and are the majority of trash picked up during Island clean-up events. 

Store owners were not so thrilled about the potential ban. 

Jamie McNeely, of Our Market, proposed a 10-cent nip bottle deposit enforced by business owners to incentivize people to pick up discarded bottles. The state currently does not have a deposit for nip bottles. 

“I walk through our parking lot any day of the week in the summer and it’s trashed,” said Mr. McNeely. “But the reality is that the number of nips people might find on a road is probably less than one per cent of the nips that are actually sold.”

A prohibition could be costly for shop owners, though.

“This would be a big financial hit for us,” Mr. McNeely said. “Unfortunately, booze has its little cloud and that’s our living and you just can’t teach people not to litter.”

Edgartown is also considering a ban on nip bottles and the select board plans to have an article on its town meeting warrant. The Oak Bluffs board decided that it wants language that would put a ban in effect only if its neighbor also does, to help protect the town’s package stores.

The board is expected to place an article on the warrant later this month. 

Other changes to how alcohol is sold in town came up as the board heard from bar and restaurant owners about the idea of changing last call from 1 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. 

The earlier last call is meant to address contradicting town policies and concern over people rushing from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs to get a few more drinks.

Several restaurant owners argued that eliminating the extra half hour would harm them financially. 

Larkin Stallings, owner of The Ritz Cafe, a popular bar and live music venue on Circuit avenue, said that the change would hurt his tipped employees and goes against Oak Bluff’s long-standing reputation as a vibrant late-night entertainment hub. 

“We’re talking about the last half hour of our business and taking large amounts of money out of the pockets of my staff,” said Mr. Stallings. 

“There’s a reason that people choose Oak Bluffs instead of Edgartown and instead of Vineyard Haven,” he continued. “I think that it has a great deal to do with our identity and how much fun Oak Bluffs is.”

The select board plans to have a special meeting March 7 at 4:30 p.m. to continue its conversation about the town’s alcohol policies and the annual town meeting warrant. 

The board also discussed plans to build a new path from East Chop Yacht Club to the nearby beach and approved the installation of a sculpture near the Steamship Authority terminal.