As the leaves begin to turn red and yellow, the governor is going green. Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order that prohibits government agencies from purchasing single-use plastic bottles, effective immediately.
The new rule nudges the state closer to similar policies enacted elsewhere in Massachusetts, such as Concord’s 2012 ban on the sale of plastic bottles. (For reference, a single plastic bottle takes ~450 years to decompose.)
The executive order is one of two that the Governor signed as part of Climate Week NYC, an environmental summit organized by environmental non-profit The Climate Group.
The second order sets biodiversity conservation goals for the coming decades — 2030, 2040, and 2050 — to “deliver the strongest biodiversity policy in America,” the Governor says. There are currently 432 species in Massachusetts that are endangered, threatened, or of special concern, including bald eagles, green sea turtles, and six species of whales.