New York City restaurants are saving 800 pounds of oyster shells from landfills every day and sending them to rebuild reefs, with 19 acres of reef habitat already restored

• New York City restaurants are giving discarded oyster shells a second life by keeping hundreds of pounds of them out of landfills every day and sending them to a project rebuilding oyster reefs across New York Harbor.
• The Billion Oyster Project collects more than 300,000 pounds of shells from participating restaurants each year, equivalent to roughly 800 pounds a day.
• Instead of becoming waste, the shells are cleaned, cured and eventually used as a foundation for new oyster reefs.