Massachusetts agencies to halt all purchases of single-use plastic bottles

Massachusetts agencies will end all purchases of single-use plastic bottles, Gov. Maura Healey (D) announced Monday at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Climate Week summit.

“Plastic production and plastic waste are among the leading threats to our oceans, our climate, and environmental justice,” Healey said. “In government, we have an obligation to stop contributing to this damage and chart a better path forward. So we are proud to become the first state to adopt a procurement ban on single-use plastic bottles.”

Although Massachusetts is the first state to announce such a ban, the city of Concord has gone further, outright banning the use of single-use plastic bottles in 2013. At the federal level, the Interior Department announced it would phase out sales of single-use plastic last year.

During her remarks, Healey also announced broader environmental initiatives in the Bay State, including a pending executive order on biodiversity protections in the state that she said will exceed the Biden administration’s “30 by 30” conservation goals. 

“Steps will include taking swift action to stem the loss of our salt marshes — which provide critically important habitat, protect inland areas from storm impacts, and remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere,” she said. “And, we will be looking at strategies such as ‘marine protected areas’ to ensure coastal and ocean habitats critical to biodiversity can recover and thrive. Our seas and forests are the most fundamental climate resources we have; we are determined to protect them.”

Healey, who took office in January, has taken a number of aggressive actions on climate as governor, including appointing Melissa Hoffer, a onetime Environmental Protection Agency lawyer, as the country’s first state climate czar. In 2022, she campaigned on a vow to reach 100 percent renewable electricity use by the end of the decade and end sales of new gas-powered passenger vehicles in the state by 2035.