A group of Freeport residents pushing for a binding referendum seeking to ban single-use plastic bags and impose a 5-cent fee on paper bags should begin circulating a petition to that end within a couple weeks, a spokesman for the group said Friday.

The proposal could supersede a non-binding vote that the Freeport Town Council called for last October. The referendum would contain the same language that the town’s Ordinance Committee recently drafted, with two important exceptions: The Ordinance Committee worked on a non-binding vote, as directed by the council, and it calls for a 5-cent fee on both plastic and paper bags, also as directed by the council.

The group calling for the outright ban on plastic bags, which has no name, gets 30 days by town charter to submit the signatures to the town clerk once the petition goes into circulation. The petition would need 646 valid signatures.

John Egan, who said he will submit the petition, said that an outright ban on plastic bags follows the spirit of a ban on plastic carry-out bags suggested two years ago by Elly Bengttson and Meredith Broderick, who were Freeport High School seniors at the time. The hope is to get the binding vote on the June ballot or, better yet, Egan said, for the Town Council to vote on the ban itself. In order for that to happen, the council would need to reverse a 4-2 vote for the non-binding referendum, rather than to take its own vote.

Councilor Kristina Egan (no relation of John Egan), who would have voted in the minority, was not present at the October meeting, and Councilor Leland Arris, elected last November, also wants a council vote. Arris succeeded Andrew Wellen, who called for the advisory vote. The Town Council, using the results of a non-binding vote, then would decide on the issue.

John Egan, a longtime involved resident and a member of Freeport Housing Trust, said he will go over the petition language with Town Manager Peter Joseph, prior to its circulation.

“There’s a group of about 50 to 60 people who have expressed interest in seeing this happen,” Egan said. “I came on board fairly late. Rather than a non-binding referendum, many in the group thought it was time to make this happen. This is not meant to be confrontational with the Town Council. We just want to push it along.”

Egan said that he and others pushing for a ban on plastic bags are concerned with litter caused by the disposal of plastic bags, and by the environmental impact. Plastic bags are not biodegradable, supporters of the ban say, and the energy used to manufacture paper bags causes greenhouse gases.

“I was inspired by the concerns so eloquently described by Meredith Broderick and Elly Bengttson two years ago,” Egan said. “And this gets people thinking of other areas for re-use.”

While the group advocating the bags ban will propose a binding vote in its petition, it is hoping for a quicker result.

“We’re hoping for a Town Council vote,” Egan said. “We’re hoping that the Town Council will see the petition as a rise in support (of the ban).”

Egan credited two Freeport businesses for being ahead of the curve on an environmental issue.

“Freeport (True Value) Hardware and Bow Street Market have already stopped using plastic,” he said. “I think it’s an important piece that these businesses have taken this step. They’re demonstrating leadership.”

Sarah Tracy, chairwoman of the Ordinance Committee – a Town Council subcommittee – said that the committee did not suggest a course of action when it forwarded the ordinance language to Joseph last month.

“We didn’t take action to recommend anything to the council yet because of possible action by the petitioners,” Tracy said. “We want to wait until we see if they get enough signatures. We didn’t want to move so fast that they couldn’t get their proposal on the table when they do.”

Melanie Sachs, Town Council chairwoman, said she told Egan she will not put the Ordinance Committee recommendation on a council agenda until the petition is submitted.

“I feel strongly that I do not want to disenfranchise the voters,” Sachs said. “I feel very strongly that I am here to represent the voters.”