The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection today announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Sysco Corporation that will create opportunities for a significant expansion of the state’s successful program that uses seafood shells recycled from restaurants for creation of oyster reefs. The reefs can improve the ecological health of coastal waters, reduce waste to landfills, enhance climate resilience and benefit local restaurants.
The collaboration, announced during a news conference and tour of Sysco’s Buckhead Meat & Seafood processing facility in Lakewood, Ocean County, builds on the company’s similar efforts elsewhere to restore oyster reefs, which can play an important role in maintaining and enhancing healthy coastal ecosystems.
Through this partnership, Sysco, the world’s largest food distributor, will collect discarded oyster and clam shells from restaurants it serves across the region and provide them to NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Shell Recycling Program for oyster reef enhancement projects that could potentially expand to multiple sites along the state’s coastline.
“Sysco is excited to partner with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to scale a project we have been interested in for several years,” said John Yates, president of Buckhead Meat & Seafood’s Mid-Atlantic Region. “Preserving and restoring oyster reefs is not only important for the shellfish themselves but also to the broader marine ecosystem and our communities that rely on this for critical proteins.”
“I applaud Sysco’s deep commitment in helping us foster a more sustainable and resilient coastal environment,” said Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette. “This partnership will not only help to bolster local oyster reefs but also inspires the public to value and protect coastal ecosystems. Oysters filter water, improve water quality, and sequester carbon dioxide through the formation of their shells, helping provide a nature-based solution that addresses both climate adaptation and environmental enhancement.”
Sysco’s collection efforts significantly broaden the NJDEP’s Shell Recycling program, making participation accessible to many restaurants and businesses across the state that are currently beyond the program’s reach.
The additional shell will directly result in more planted reefs, which means more available habitat for oyster larvae to settle and grow — leading to greater recruitment, population recovery, and ecosystem benefits. More shell will also allow NJDEP to expand reef enhancement work to other areas, with hopes of creating reef habitat connectivity across the state’s coastal waters.
The Seeds of Partnership Early in their lifecycle, oyster larvae need to attach to a hard substrate to develop. Clean oyster and clam shells are the preferred substrate. Traditionally, when oysters and clams are served at a restaurant, the discarded shell will be put in the trash and sent to a landfill. Shell recycling is a practice that aims to collect what otherwise would be a waste product and beneficially reuse it for oyster reef enhancement efforts. “Oysters are a keystone species in our local estuaries and are essential to our mission to maintain healthy and productive marine ecosystems,” said NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Assistant Commissioner Dave Golden. “These reefs offer critical habitat for a wide range of recreational and commercially important marine species. By recycling shells, we reduce waste and support the recovery of ecosystems that benefit both marine life and coastal communities. ”Shell resources, however, are quite limited, presenting a challenge to effectively implementing reef enhancement projects. To address this, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife launched a shell recycling program in 2019 that was centered in Atlantic City, where discarded clam and oyster shells from restaurants were collected and reused to enhance local oyster reefs. The program began with a single restaurant partner and was initially focused solely on the Atlantic City region.
The program grew quickly to involve nearly every major casino and seafood restaurant in Atlantic City within just a few years. It now serves 32 restaurant partners across Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean counties, significantly increasing shell collection efforts and resulting in more available shell for oyster reef enhancement. Since 2021, more than 45,000 bushels (more than 1,100 tons) of recycled shell along with shell purchased from local processors have been planted onto the reef system. Program Recognition and ExpansionThe success of the program has drawn interest locally as well as nationally. Sysco Corporation learned of this initiative and inquired about partnership opportunities, as the program aligns with the company’s overall mission and sustainability goals.The NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Shell Recycling Program has received multiple accolades for its work. At its Fall 2024 meeting, the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) awarded an Honorable Mention to the program in the Land, Air, & Cross-Media Category of ECOS’ Innovation Awards for a video showcasing the shell recycling process. Earlier this year, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Shell Recycling Program team members were honored at the 2025 State Employee Recognition Day award ceremony as part of Public Service Recognition Week.
The program has also earned highly competitive grants. In 2024, the program gained funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Zone Management Program, enabling expansion beyond Atlantic City and development of a robust environmental education program called Project S.H.E.L.L. (Strengthening Habitats through Environmental Learning and Leadership), which provides experiential marine science learning opportunities to students in Atlantic City and surrounding areas. ResourcesTo learn more about the Shell Recycling Program, NJDEP’s partnership with Sysco Corporation and other shell recycling program partners, visit https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/fishing/marine/shell-recycling-program/.Sysco’s shell recycling: https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/fishing/marine/shell-recycling-program-sysco-restaurant-registration-survey/ Sysco: Buckhead New Jersey – Buckhead | Newport Meat & Seafood Follow NJDEP Fish & Wildlife on Facebook at facebook.com/NewJerseyFishandWildlife/ and on Instagram at instagram.com/NewJerseyFishandWildlife/.