The Oyster Dish: OSRP Quarterly Report

T H E O Y S T E R D I S H

H I G H L I G H T S

CRCL'S OYSTER SHELL RECYCLING PROGRAM

REMINDERS

Please Mind your Trash!

Please recycle ONLY oyster, mussel, clam and scallop shells in the bins.

Your shells will be returned to the waterlet's make sure trash does not go with them!

Pausing Pickup

If your restaurant needs to pause pickup (closure, oysters off the menu temporarily, etc.), please email us at oysters@crcl.org or call Darrah at (415) 722-6404

Once you are ready to resume pickup, let us know!

UPCOMING RESTORATION EVENTS

FEBRUARY 3-4: AVERY ISLAND, LA CRUSH* TREE PLANTING

FEBRUARY 24 & 25: VIOLET, LA OYSTER SHELL RECYCLING

MARCH 11: DOCVILLE FARM, ST. BERNARD PARISH

COOK-OFF FOR THE COAST, SUPPORTS OUR OSRP

MARCH 17-18: ATCHAFALAYA CRUSH* TREE PLANTING

MARCH 31: AUDUBON ZOO

SHELL-A-BRATION, OUR OSRP FUNDRAISER

APRIL 14: VIOLET, LA

OYSTER SHELL RECYCLING

APRIL 21 & 22: VIOLET, LA

OYSTER SHELL RECYCLING

*CRUSH: Communities Restoring Urban Swamp Habitats

SHELL COLLECTION BY THE NUMBERS

Our numbers this year are much higher than last year. We love to see it!

Thanks to you, we’re on track to have our best year yet!

CRCL IS CELEBRATING 35 YEARS!

We want to thank YOU for being a committed partner and helping the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana defend the coast through our Oyster Shell Recycling Program.

To celebrate our partnership, we have a gift for you: We’re offering you 35% off your monthly invoice for oyster shell recycling throughout 2023!

We appreciate your continued support of this program, championing our efforts to keep shells out of landfills and return them to our shoreline where they can help slow coastal erosion, minimize storm surge and create habitat for new oysters.

SHELL-A-BRATION

Join us on the evening of March 31 in the Cajun Ballroom at the Audubon Zoo for an oyster festival, CRCL style! We’ll have live music, oysters, and much more! Celebrate our accomplishments this year at our Shell-A-Bration.

Want to get involved? Here's how!

Donate an item or experience for our silent auction. Proceeds benefit our OSRP

Promote your restaurant by providing an appetizer

Buy a ticket! This includes an open bar, food and access to live music

THANK YOU, CHEFS BRIGADE!

We want to thank Chefs Brigade for making our program possible With Chefs Brigade support, we collected 567,478 pounds of oyster shell in 2022. That's the same weight as 45 elephants!

WE'VE BEEN BUSY

In 2022, you recycled a whopping 1.9 million pounds of oyster shell! This was our third highest annual shell collection total since starting the program, and it’s all thanks to our wonderful partners

Since we began recycling oyster shells in 2014, restaurants across the New Orleans area have helped CRCL return 12.6 million pounds of shell to the water. Thank you!

NEW RESTAURANTS

Step 1: Collect your native seeds

We are accepting bald cypress seeds from trees grown in Louisiana. These can be harvested from a tree in your yard, on the side of the road, in parking lots or in other public spaces.

Step 2: Drop them at the CRCL Seed Library

Seeds will be planted by volunteers at upcoming events, and CRCL will grow the trees in Violet until they are ready to be re-planted

WE NEED YOUR CYPRESS SEEDS THANK YOU, AL!

Seeds should be placed in a paper bag and labelled with the date, location of collection and species

Drop them off in the minifridge at CRCL’s Restoration HQ in Violet (6207 E St Bernard Highway, Violet, LA 70092) or at our office in New Orleans (3801 Canal St, Suite 400, New Orleans, LA 70119) on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

CRCL volunteer rockstar, Al Duverney built us a new oyster bagging device to help us be more efficient in our recycling process Al often volunteers his time to help with the restoration programs

CRCL IN THE NEWS

The BBC News visited us during our last reef build in Pointe-Au-Chien to learn how oysters are a part of coastal restoration We have seen a 50% reduction in erosion! Check out the video here.