Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA) signed an executive order banning single-use plastic bottles for state agencies in Massachusetts days after promising to do so.

Healey said she was "proud" to sign the executive order on Thursday, and she touted it as an environmental measure meant to preserve natural resources. Here is what the executive order from Healy outlines for the ban.

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The executive order directs that offices under the executive of the commonwealth should cease buying single-use plastic bottles "in favor of less harmful alternatives." All Massachusetts quasi-public authorities and boards are also "encouraged" to adopt similar plans banning single-use plastic bottles.

Also included in the order is a requirement that by the end of the year "all executive department offices and agencies" must submit a report showing how they are preventing expenditures to buy the banned bottles and how they are working to reduce the "sale or re-sale" of single-use plastic bottles on property owned by the state.

The bottles banned under the order are by definition "a beverage in a sealed rigid plastic bottle having a capacity of 21 fluid ounces or less."

The executive order does outline that state agencies may still purchase, use, or sell single-use plastic bottles when "no alternative is available or practicable," when it would prove necessary to "protect health, safety, and welfare," to comply with existing labor agreements or contracts, or in the event of an emergency.

Healey, in a statement on Thursday, said the "bold action" is intended to preserve natural resources alongside an executive order to develop biodiversity goals for the coming decades.

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“Massachusetts has a long history of being first in the nation, and we’re proud to be the first to set long-term targets for biodiversity and to ban state agencies from purchasing single-use plastic bottles,” Healey said.

"Our state is home to precious natural resources, from our towering forests, numerous lakes and ponds, vast network of rivers, and beautiful marshland, estuaries, and abundant ocean, that clean our air, power our economy, and serve as a home to hundreds threatened and rare species. These lands define the culture of our state, and today, we are taking bold action to preserve them for generations to come,” she added.