New Jersey planted more than 26,000 bushels of recycled oyster and clam shells across 8 acres; the total was double the amount initially planned

Next time you’re tucking into some oysters on a Saturday night at a bar along the Jersey Shore, think about that empty shell on your plate. In fact, it could soon be back in the sea and doing far more good for the environment. While it may sound a little ‘too perfect’, in New Jersey, a shell recycling scheme exceeded its own initial goals for this year.

According to a NOAA Office for Coastal Management report, 26,087 thousand bushels of recycled shells have been planted to restore oyster reefs covering 8 acres of the Mullica River estuary. This is well above the amount that was expected to be achieved. For those who’ve grown up with the idea of recycling through apps and posters, this is a novel idea. Seafood waste is being recycled and repurposed to help restore an ecosystem that has been destroyed by American cities in the last century.

How a restaurant leftover becomes a reef


Oyster and clam shells from restaurants in Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean Counties were set aside. They were collected by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and cleaned and sun-dried. These shells were then barged out to the Mullica River and blasted back into the water using high-pressure water jets. Baby oysters, or spat, need a firm substrate to attach to in order to survive. Without shells, it is much harder for reefs and oysters to re-establish.

The scheme began in 2019 when Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino first partnered with the state to recycle its shells; it has since expanded to involve multiple counties with over $1.2 million in federal funding. More restaurants are involved (20, 5 more than initially aimed for), with recycling bins added to public areas in Ocean City, Atlantic City, and Lakewood. Food distribution company Sysco has also come on board to help collect shells from the many restaurants they supply across the region.

Why this matters more than it seems

While this may seem like a feel-good story for your local news, the story behind it isn’t so upbeat. Oysters were once widespread along the East Coast of America. However, a landmark global study titled “Oyster Reefs at Risk and Recommendations for Conservation, Restoration, and Management,” published in BioScience, estimated that 85% of the world's oyster reefs have disappeared due to overharvesting, disease, and destruction of their habitats.

North America has suffered some of the most severe losses. The oyster reef in the Mullica River is one of the last remaining self-sustaining wild oyster populations along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey. Oysters are essentially free coastal engineers: a separate peer-reviewed analysis concluded that oyster reefs provide around $5,500 and $99,000 in ecosystem services per hectare per year. This includes filtering of water, stabilising shorelines, and reducing the impact of storms.

New Jersey isn't the only one doing this

Over in New York, the Billion Oyster Project has been doing something very similar for over a decade. They’ve been collecting shells from dozens of restaurants in NYC to help restore their reefs in a harbour where oysters were declared functionally extinct over a century ago. Back home, New Jersey’s own program has a separate expansion goal: using its NOAA grant, it aims to add 10 more acres of reef to the Mullica River restoration. While this won’t help the ocean straight away, it’s a rare example of an environmental scheme exceeding its paperwork, and a sign the whole coastal food chain is working as it should.