Oyster Recovery Partnership Homepage COPY

Welcome! The Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) leads oyster restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay. Our oyster Shell Recycling Alliance reclaims oyster shell from restaurants and other seafood businesses. Instead of dumping oyster shell in landfills, we recycle and return it – with baby oysters attached – to the Chesapeake Bay where it helps keep the Bay clean and vibrant!

Do you know how much water oysters filter? A single, healthy adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day?

ORP is the nation’s largest shell recycling network, annually recycling 36,000 bushels of oyster shell from 340 restaurants and 70 public drop sites in the mid-Atlantic region and contributing to oyster restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay. Click below to see how you can help!

Everyone benefits from a healthy Chesapeake Bay. Poor water quality and declining habitats can be reversed. Oysters are the answer.

Discover more about oysters and our work below

• Oyster Facts

  

  Learn about bivalves and why they are critical to Bay health!

• Oyster Reef Restoration

  

  ORP is working to restore reefs in Five Chesapeake Bay tributaries by 2025. See our progress.

• Shell Recycling

  

  Oyster shell is the best, most natural material to rebuild reefs. We collect, recycle, and return it with spat attached to help the Bay grow clean and vibrant!

• Shell Recycling Restaurants

  

  ORP relies on these for the critical shell that we use in our large-scale reef restoration projects. The easiest thing you can do to support our work is to patronize these Bay-friendly businesses!

• Oyster Facts

  

• Shell Recycling Restaurants

  

• 2020 Annual Report

  

• Oyster Reef Restoration

  

• Marylanders Grow Oysters

  

• Shell Recycling