FREEPORT – A Freeport committee studying a proposal to ban the use of plastic shopping bags is considering both the environmental and the economic impacts of such a ban, Town Manager Peter Joseph said last week.

The Ordinance Committee will resume discussion of the proposed ordinance when it meets on Aug. 12, in the Town Council chambers. Meredith Broderick and Elly Bengtsson, who both recently graduated from Freeport High School, asked the Town Council on July 1 to consider their draft proposal. The council turned the matter over to the Ordinance Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full council in the coming months, Joseph said.

“This isn’t something that’s going to happen anytime soon, by any stretch of the imagination,” Joseph said. “I think all the (committee) members have concerns.”

Joseph said that the committee has much to consider, such as what would replace plastic bags if they are banned.

“One question is, are there unintended consequences of moving to paper?” he said. “Do we actually spend more money, energy and resources manufacturing paper? The trash question is easy. Plastic doesn’t disintegrate, and paper does.”

Joseph said Portland passed an ordinance, which goes into effect next year, that places a charge of 5 cents for each plastic or paper shopping bag used by customers.

“An outright ban on plastic bags might not stop the use of disposable bags altogether,” he said. “It might just mean paper.”

Once the Ordinance Committee completes its review on environmental concerns, Joseph said, it will tackle the economic questions.

“There is a lot of caution because this is a tourist community,” he said. “Paper is more expensive than plastic. That’s how Portland got around it, by saying to businesses, ‘Hey, you keep the money.”

Joseph said he knows of no businesses that have contacted town officials with opinions one way or the other, but he expects a “robust” public participation process.

Sande Updegraph, executive director of the Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce, said she hasn’t heard much from chamber members on the plastic bags ban. But at least one chamber member, Frreeport Hardware on U.S. Route 1 South, is ahead of the curve. Though unaware of the proposal under study, Freeport Hardware is using up the last of its plastic bags.

Environmental concerns led her and her husband, Woody, to make the decision, Kristin Woodbury said.

“We want to keep is as green as possible as you can in a hardware store,” owner Woodbury said. “We also want to support the lumber yards by supporting the use of paper.”

The proposed ordinance, she said, makes sense. Plastic bags “end up in the ocean, you see them floating around on the highway,” Woodbury said.

Broderick and Bengttson’s draft ordinance would require businesses to replace the disposable plastic bags at supermarkets and convenience stores with more environmentally friendly containers. They are hoping that a ban on the sale of plastic bags in Freeport also would bolster the town’s image as an environmentally conscious town. The Town Council banned the use of Styrofoam containers in 1990.