Texas Surf Conservancy
Recycle Oyster Shells
Whether you’re a restaurateur or an oyster aficionado, recycling oyster shells after eating this delectable seafood makes good environmental sense. Oyster shells can be bagged and used to restore marine habitats or hang from your pier as an oyster garden. They can be used to make jewelry or recycled for art projects. They can even be ground for use as soil amendment or crushed to make a solid road base. So whether you decide to get scientific, creative, or functional, please recycle your oyster shells. We’re all better off when they’re reused and recycled than in a landfill!
Galveston Bay Foundation: Oyster Shell Recycling Program
After enjoying tasty oysters on the half-shell at your favorite seafood restaurant, that shell, along with thousands of others, is more often than not sent to a landfill. Rather than losing this vital resource, the Galveston Bay Foundation partners with local restaurants to collect shucked oyster shells and return them to the bay as new oyster habitat, thus transporting oyster shells from restaurants to reefs. The Oyster Shell Recycling Program was piloted in 2011 by GBF and Tommy’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar. Since then, the program has expanded to 40 restaurant partners and three curing sites. The Galveston Bay Foundation’s Oyster Shell Recycling Program now partners with several Houston and Galveston area restaurants to collect shucked oyster shells and return them to the Bay to create oyster habitat.
For more information or to get involved, please contact Shannon Batte at sbatte@galvbay.org or 832-536-2265.
As a result of HB 3487, Texas restaurants can now enjoy a sales tax rebate when they recycle oyster shells through one of the following oyster shell recycling programs. Click here to download a flyer that provides filing instructions from the Office of the Comptroller.
Harte Research Institute: Sink Your Shucks™ Recycling Program
The Sink Your Shucks™ oyster shell recycling program is run by the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (HRI). Sink Your Shucks™ reclaims shucked oyster shells from local restaurants, so they can be returned to local bays through HRI’s greater oyster reef restoration efforts. The shell collected provides both substrate to form new reefs and habitat for fish, crabs, and other organisms.
Sink Your Shucks™ was the first oyster shell recycling program in Texas, founded in 2009 in partnership with WaterStreet Oyster Bar and TSC Founder Brad Lomax. To date, the initiative has reclaimed almost 3 million pounds of shucked oyster shells, which has led to the restoration of almost 45 acres of oyster reef habitat throughout the Mission-Aransas Estuary.
Multiple times a week, HRI staff collect shucked shells from partner restaurants and deposit them at a quarantine and collection site that is located on land generously donated by the Port of Corpus Christi. After the shells are quarantined, HRI places the shell at predetermined wild oyster reef restoration sites and HRI researchers actively study the effectiveness and longevity of these restoration projects.
For more information, please contact Stephanie Tierce, Program Coordinator, at stephanie.tierce@tamucc.edu or 361-825-2792.
