Baltimore Residents Can Now Recycle Oyster Shells

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Paper bottles, cans and now oyster shells.

It's the latest item Baltimore residents can recycle.

As WJZ's Alex Demetrick reports, they could get recycled right back onto your dinner plate.

At the Sisson Street Recycling Center, "residents can come dispose of their shells," says Jennifer Combs, a Department of Public Works spokeswoman.

"It's a convenience for them and it's a great thing to do for the environment."

Recycling oyster shells is something Baltimore restaurants have been doing for six years, but individual residents weren't able to.

So Brian Katzenberg and his brother, both oyster-eating enthusiasts, started asking why not.

"So we reached out to the Oyster Recovery Partnership, our local council person Mary Pat Clark, who got us in contact with DPW, so that's how we got everything really," Katzenberg says.

As far as recycling goes, this one pays dividends. For every shell recycled, ten new oysters are attached.

Recycled shells are taken to a lab where spat, or oyster larvae, are attached.

Then they're taken to oyster reefs and planted, in an effort to restore native stocks in the bay and keep them on your plate for years to come.

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