PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A new local effort is turning restaurant leftovers into a powerful tool for cleaner water. Oyster shells from The Breakersand Cod & Capers Seafood are getting a second life — helping restore the Lake Worth Lagoon through a new recycling and restoration program led by the Palm Beach County Fishing Foundation.
WATCH BELOW: 'Oysters are a keystone species in the marine system,' Tom Twyford tells WPTV
Foundation executive director Tom Twyford said until recently, Palm Beach County wasn't part of the oyster restoration movement and that the county is catching up to a growing national trend in oyster restoration.
"We really weren't recycling oysters in Palm Beach County, and we saw an opportunity to collect them for locally based restoration," he said. "We're pretty much late to the party on this one, I got to be honest with you."
Each week, Twyford collects hundreds of used shells from restaurants and takes them to John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, where they cure under the Florida sun. Once sanitized, volunteers string the shells on cables to create vertical oyster gardens, hanging underwater structures that give oyster a place to grow.
"The oysters are strung on a piece of cable and suspended in a water column right at the oyster's happy spot right between high tide and low tide, the perfect environment to grow," Twyford explained.
"Oyster shells are far too valuable of a resource to just send to the landfill," Twyford said, demonstrating how the gardens are lowered into the water.
Each new oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, improving clarity and restoring habitat for marine life. But Twyford said these small projects are about more than recycling — they're a response to years of damage.
"There's been a lot of degradation to our water quality over the years, a lot of loss of local habitat like seagrass," he said.
One of the biggest threats, he explained, is sediment loading — the fine, mucky material that clouds the water and buries seagrass beds after heavy rains or storms.
"Let's say we get a tropical storm, or let's say we get a hurricane — you can see what happens to our waterway," Twyford said.
He said these oysters are much more than sea life — they're vital to a healthy ecosystem.
"Oysters are a keystone species in the marine system," Twyford said. "They're the most cost-effective, environmentally efficient filtration system we could ever want to have."
But the project is about more than cleaning the water it's also about connecting the community.
"The other beauty of the program," Twyford said, "is the community outreach aspect," noting partnerships with local school groups and volunteers who help build the gardens.
Still, Twyford admits there's more work ahead.
"We have a problem where, in bodies of water like the Lake Worth Lagoon, the water quality is a really important issue — and it's one that we're not winning the war on," he said.
Since starting, more than 170 vertical oyster gardens have been installed, including right in residents' backyards in the Village of North Palm Beach, an area leading the charge when it comes to the filtration gardens.
Twyford hopes more coastal communities will join the effort.
"If we can get thousands, tens of thousands of vertical gardens suspended in the waterways of Palm Beach County, we'll be making some progress toward water quality and clarity," he said. "It's not going to solve all the problems, but it's going to help a lot."
