DALY CITY, Calif. – A city councilman wants to add this San Francisco suburb to the growing list of California communities that have banned plastic grocery bags. But an industry group is poised to add the city to its list of places where it is fighting to overturn such restrictions. Councilman David Canepa told The San Francisco Examiner that he will propose an ordinance at the Feb. 14 council meeting. The measure would ban plastic bags at supermarkets and other retailers with stores larger than 10,000 square feet. “Plastic bags have a detrimental effect on our parks, on the streets, at our storm water dispensers,” Canepa said. “It’s going directly into our waterways; it’s going directly into the ocean.” Canepa’s measure would allow paper bags made of more than 40 percent recycled content but would require retailers to charge a fee of at least 10 cents per bag. San Francisco became the first city in the country to ban plastic bags at grocery stores and drug stores with an ordinance passed in 2007. Similar measures have since been passed in Palo Alto, Oakland, Fairfax, Malibu and Los Angeles County. The Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, an industry group, has sued some cities and counties that it says did not perform complete environmental impact reviews. Stephen Joseph, an attorney with the coalition, says the group would sue Daly City if it passed the ban without an environmental impact report.


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