What began as a Colgate research paper earned Abrielle Silva ’26 first place at the New York State Economics Association’s 2025 Undergraduate Paper Contest.
Her paper, “Disposable Bag Bans and Waste Disposal in California,” examined the effectiveness of policies reducing the use of plastic bags in California, and she presented the findings during the NYSEA conference on Saturday, Nov. 8, in Rochester, N.Y.
Silva, an environmental economics major, began this research last spring for Econ 483: Seminar in Resource and Environmental Economics. The class is taught by economics and environmental studies professor Isla Globus-Harris, who is also Silva’s adviser. Students in the class write original research papers on an environmental economics topic of their choosing.
Silva’s topic stemmed from her high school experience working at a Massachusetts grocery store. “I saw all of those changes happening. My town implemented its own ban during the time that I was working there,” Silva said.
Her research methodology closely analyzed the application of these disposable bag bans. “I gathered a comprehensive list of all of the regulations across the U.S., and I was looking through municipal codes, local ordinances, and news articles to identify where places had adopted the regulations and what the different specifics were,” Silva said.
She chose to examine California because of its statewide bag ban, in addition to a variety of local ordinances with additional rules. Her research found no significantly measurable impact on municipal waste disposal.
According to Silva, there were three possible explanations for why the regulations would not have an impact on waste.
“I was measuring waste in tons, so maybe they were very light,” Silva offered. “Maybe the bags were being littered, and so the impact was more on the pollution side than the waste side. The third being that people are switching over to alternate bags like paper or heavier plastic bags and overriding any impact in that way.”
The NYSEA conference is held annually. After submitting original papers, selected undergraduates attend the conference by invitation to present their work for further recognition.
At the conference, eight participants each presented for 10 minutes and answered questions from judges, some of whom had pre-read the papers, while others judged based on the presentation alone. Silva earned first place based on her paper, presentation, and response to questions.
Moving forward, Silva is continuing this research for her honors thesis. She is broadening her focus from California to the entire United States and recentering the topic to examine how these policies impact employment and the number of recycling facilities.
“How do these policies affect the economic outcomes of those facilities, like payroll employment and total number of establishments?” she asks.