CRCL expands oyster shell recycling to Baton Rouge for the first time

Restaurants can receive tax incentive for participating in coastal restoration program

AUGUST 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana is expanding its Oyster Shell Recycling Program to Baton Rouge, bringing the state’s only large-scale shell recycling coastal restoration program to that city for the first time. Through the program, which was established in 2014, restaurants collect their shell in bins that are picked up by a contractor several times a week. The shell is transported to a curing site, then placed into marine-grade mesh bags by volunteers. The shell is then returned to the waters of coastal Louisiana to create living shorelines, which provide habitat for new oysters to grow, slow the rate of erosion and minimize storm surge during hurricanes and tropical storms. CRCL will be building its sixth reef in September at Grand Bayou Indian Village in Plaquemines Parish.  

CRCL is recruiting Baton Rouge restaurants for the program. Three restaurants have joined so far. The first day of shell pick-up is Sept. 4.  

More than 30 restaurants in the New Orleans area already take part in the program, which has recycled more than 14 million pounds of shell.  

“This is such an exciting moment for our Oyster Shell Recycling Program and for CRCL, and it’s been a long time coming,” said Darrah Bach, the program’s manager. “We’ve said from the start that all shell removed from Louisiana waters should be returned to the water, and with the participation of Baton Rouge restaurants, we’ll be much closer to making that a reality.”  

Restaurants pay a monthly fee to participate in the OSRP, but those costs can be offset through a state tax credit for restaurants that recycle their shell for beneficial purposes. CRCL provides participating restaurants with the metrics to apply for the tax incentive, which went into effect Jan. 1. Restaurants will also have less volume and weight in their remaining trash.  

Restaurants receive marketing support from CRCL in the form of social media posts and promotional materials such as table tents, stickers and brochures. The program also attracts frequent media coverage, which often extends to restaurants that participate in the program.  

The contractor for the OSRP’s Baton Rouge restaurants is Coastal Environments Inc., a company founded by Woody Gagliano in the 1970s. Gagliano was widely considered the father of coastal restoration in Louisiana. He received CRCL Coastal Stewardship Awards in 2011 and 1996. CEI was also the contractor for an oyster reef CRCL built in 2020 in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Barataria Bay.  

CRCL was the first statewide nonprofit to advocate for large-scale coastal restoration in Louisiana, where about 2,000 square miles of wetlands have been converted into open water in less than a century. To learn more about the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana or its Oyster Shell Recycling Program, visit the organization’s website.  

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The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to unite people in action to achieve a thriving, sustainable Louisiana coast for all.