New York restaurants send oyster shells to rebuild harbor reefs
Seventy-five New York City restaurants now send their discarded oyster shells to the Billion Oyster Project, which uses them to build new reef sites in the harbor. The project, based on Governor's Island, aims to restore 1 billion oysters across 100 acres of reef by 2035. So far it has installed 12 reef sites over seven acres, planted 28 million live oysters, filtered 19.7 trillion gallons of water and collected over 1,300,000 pounds of shells diverted from landfills. Oyster reefs filter water as they eat, which helps clarify the water and remove pollutants like nitrogen.
Oyster reefs naturally filter harbor water, removing pollutants and clarifying the ecosystem for marine life and nearby communities.
Source: How oyster shells from NYC restaurants are recycled to restore reefs (abcnews.com). Spotted via Good News Network.
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
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