Later this week, Gov. Maura Healey will sign an executive order that will prohibit state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles effective immediately, a step that she said Massachusetts will be the first state in the nation to take and one that the Legislature has repeatedly declined to take over the last decade.
Healey made the announcement Monday morning at the Hilton Midtown hotel in New York City, where she spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative ahead of a panel on sustainable ocean conservation practices. Though the governor was met with applause when she announced that she would sign an executive order that “bans the purchase of single-use plastics by state agencies in Massachusetts,” Healey’s office later clarified that the ban will apply only to single-use plastic bottles.
