Smart PR

It’s smart PR to take something destined for a landfill and to recycle it into an environmental substance. That is what students and teachers in New York City are doing in the Billion Oyster Project. They are rescuing oyster half-shells from restaurants, cleaning them and using them as substrates for new oyster spat that is planted on the sea bed in reefs that clean the water and break the force of ocean waves. It is a win-win for everybody. The restaurants are glad to do it because it is less expensive than putting the shells into the trash. Teachers and students are happy to have a guaranteed source for shells. Environmentalists support the project because it is cleaning the harbor. Students are learning hands-on ecology and some of them will go on to become scientists studying the effects of pollution and how to prevent it. One wonders whether other educational systems are emulating the program. It’s a brilliant idea.