A New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection program is attempting to turn culinary trash into environmental treasure. Eleven restaurants around Atlantic City — including more than half of the city’s casinos — are giving their leftover shells to the Marine Resources Administration, who in turn are using those shells to help bolster the oyster population within the Mullica River and Great Bay.

The Marine Resources Administration planted nearly 100 tons of recycled shells last year. They collected more than that, but the shells need to cure in the sun for six months before they are planted.

“Clean shell provides the substrate they need,” said Scott Stueber, senior fisheries biologist within the Marine Resources Administration. “A lot of times, if you have shell that’s existing on the reef, it degrades over time or gets silted over, or may get encrusted by other organisms. It leaves less available real estate for oysters to inhabit.”

Stueber and other DEP officials said oysters provide a bevy of environmental benefits; among them, oyster reefs help filter water, reduce erosion and help provide a habitat space for fish.