A new program will recycle oyster shells from restaurants and plant them in oyster beds along the South Carolina coast. There are an estimated 60,000 bushels of oysters sold to South Carolina restaurants each year. The majority of those bushels are thrown away from the restaurants.

The Nature Conservancy, the state Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services teamed up with some College of Charleston students and Fisher Recycling to begin this new recycling program that will re-plant these shells into existing oyster beds on the coast.

According to the Associated Press, programs like this are already successful in Hilton Head and Murrells Inlet. The effort in Charleston will focus on recycling oyster shells from coastal-area restaurants that serve more than 100 bushels of oysters monthly.