The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has partnered with Sysco Corporation, the world’s largest food distributor, to dramatically expand the state’s innovative shell recycling program. Under this new collaboration, Sysco will collect discarded oyster and clam shells from restaurants across the region and provide them to the NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Shell Recycling Program. That program uses reclaimed shells to create oyster reefs along New Jersey’s coastline, where young oyster larvae can attach and grow.
The new partnership will help reduce landfill waste and boost reef environments that improve the ecological health of coastal waters, enhance climate resilience, and filter and improve water quality.
NJDEP’s shell recycling program started in 2019 with a single Atlantic City restaurant and has grown to include 32 partners across Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean counties. Since 2021, the program has planted more than 45,000 bushels of recycled shells onto reef systems. The new partnership with Sysco will make participation accessible to many more restaurants across the state.
The New Jersey program has earned national recognition, including an honorable mention in the ECOS Fall 2024 Innovation Awards and funding from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Zone Management Program.
Click here to learn more about the New Jersey shell recycling program.
