By Juliet Kasas-Hoch, SandPaper
Last week the state Department of Environmental Protection recognized a handful of municipalities, businesses, organizations and individuals during a virtual ceremony celebrating recycling efforts throughout New Jersey. Among those honored was Long Beach Township, which won the “Leadership” award for its “innovative voluntary recycling project that diverts oyster and clam shells from restaurants for use in establishing a research oyster reef in Little Egg Harbor Bay.”
A few days a week in the summer months and less frequently in the off-season, the township collects mollusk shells from participating area restaurants and takes them to Parsons Mariculture or Stockton University – both of which are partners in the program, along with Jetty and the Jetty Rock Foundation. The shells cure for six months before they are set with spat – baby oysters – in mariculture tanks. Then, Stockton vessels deploy them onto a reef site in the bay and monitor their growth and survival.
As Jetty has explained, funding from the Barnegat Bay Partnership “established the Tuckerton Reef in 2016 with aquaculture-set oyster spat on whelk shell and transplanted seed from the Mullica River. The two-acre research site is located in the Middle Grounds area of Little Egg Harbor Bay, with initial and future aquaculture work done by Parsons and the scientific monitoring by Stockton.”
Since 2017, the township has collected 6,000 bushels of shell from local restaurants. Currently, there are 18 participating establishments, with plans to add more in 2021.
Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini noted, “We are the only municipality in New Jersey to put resources behind recycling shell, diverting this material from the landfill and getting it back into the bay where it belongs.”
“2020 was a tough year,” said LBT Sustainability Coordinator Angela Andersen, “but many of our restaurants managed to stay in the recycling program despite all the challenges. There is such great dedication to making this program continue to succeed.
“There is an ever-growing number of oyster farms in the bay,” she added, “and the volume of local shellfish coming to our tables locally is inspiring. The shell recycling is closing the loop on this amazing success story,” which sees the shells go from “bay to table to bay.”
“I commend the award winners for their innovative efforts to promote recycling and educate their communities about the importance of diverting waste,” DEP Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe stated. “New Jersey has been a national leader in recycling for many years, thanks in part to the types of initiatives we see from our recycling award winners and those who follow their excellent examples. Their work helps protect our environment by keeping communities clean and reducing the impacts of climate change.”
“We proudly recognize these award winners for their diligent work to keep New Jersey’s environment clean and healthy,” said Paul Baldauf, assistant commissioner for air quality, energy and sustainability. “Every year our winners show us the value of recycling and its importance to the environment. We hope promoting their accomplishments will inspire others to adopt better recycling practices.”
In 2021, the township aims to grow the program not only with additional restaurants on board, but also by creating drop-off locations, expanded restoration education and opportunities, more-frequent outreach events and increased fundraising.
And, as Mancini remarked, “We look forward to further engaging the community, and our participating restaurants and their staff, in the coming year through our new facility in Holgate,” a science education center that will additionally serve as a launching point to visit the man-made oyster reefs.
In 1987, New Jersey became the first state to enact legislation that requires recycling in residential, commercial and institutional settings, achieving an overall recycling rate of 60 percent in 2017. The DEP administers a number of grant and educational programs to help improve the statewide recycling rate, and urges all residents to participate in their local recycling program, and to do their part to keep unacceptable materials – such as plastic bags, trash, propane tanks and used syringes – out of curbside and workplace recycling bins.
For more information about recycling in New Jersey, visit nj.gov/dep/dshw/recycling, or the Association of New Jersey Recyclers site at anjr.com.
To learn more about the LBT Oyster Shell Recycling Program and to support the project, visit followtheshell.com.
Don’t miss information like this. Click to receive free EP Blog updates
