The group of Freeport residents seeking a binding referendum that would ban single-use plastic and paper bags will begin its long-promised petition drive on Monday, April 4.

A public hearing is likely in May, during which the Town Council has the option of either voting to institute the ban or sending the proposal to a June 14 referendum vote, according to Town Manger Peter Joseph. The council decided late last year to propose a non-binding referendum calling for a ban on plastic bags and a 5-cent fee on paper. Both the ordinance and the proposed ban would apply to any store whose food sales amount to more than 2 percent of its total sales.

The petition would need 646 valid signatures.

Joseph confirmed last Thursday he is aware of the petition group’s plan.

“The Town Council will look at the proposal and either vote on it or put it on the ballot,” Joseph said. “The real question is, do people support a ban?”

Joseph added that the council could, though it might be unlikely, choose to put both the binding and non-binding questions on a competing ballot.

John Egan, Michelle Bosse, Jeff Bengtsson, Fiona Wilson and Robert Wilson are on the group’s requesting committee, which gets the petition papers from the town clerk.

Sukie Rice, spokeswoman for the group, said that petitions will be handed out at the Freeport Community Library on April 4, from 6-8 p.m., to people who want to gather signatures. Anyone interested in helping with the effort should pick up a petition that evening or contact Joan Saxe atjoansaxe@gmail.com, Rice said.

“Joan is coordinating the gathering of signatures,” Rice said. “We have about 30 people pledged to collect signatures. We would like more, especially to help our presences at the Recycling/Transfer Station on a Saturday in April.”

Meredith Broderick and Elly Bengtsson, who at the time were seniors at Freeport High School, made the original proposal in the spring of 2014, calling for a ban on plastic bags, saying that discarded bags are gathering at an alarming rate in oceans, and also saying the bags are responsibe for physical and chemical impacts in the food chain.

Proponents of a ban or fee on plastic bags say that discarded plastic bags number in the trillions in our oceans, and point out that Freeport is a coastal community. Also, they maintain that plastics are durable materials that may break apart, but do not degrade.

The American Plastic Bags Alliance argues that multi-use plastic bags are percent recyclable and made from American natural gas. A recent national survey shows that more than 90 percent of Americans reuse their plastic bags, the organization says. The American Progressive Bag Alliance represents an industry that employs more than 24,600 American workers.

Both Portland and South Portland have instituted a 5-cent fee on plastic and paper bags from stores that sell food.