SAN ANTONIO – One man’s trash is giving an entire ecosystem a second chance.
Oyster shells that would normally be discarded in San Antonio are now being collected to help restore threatened oyster reefs along the Gulf Coast. The South Texas Coastal Initiative is leading the effort in the city.
“This is what we do to keep our ecosystem clean and running right,” Ernest Brown, a member of the Board of Directors for STCI, said. “Every oyster shell we put back in the water has a chance to grow another oyster, and there are millions of shells being thrown away.”
KSAT met with the STCI team at Fiesta during St. Mary’s University’s Oyster Bake 2025. They were there to help recycle discarded oyster shells.
About a week later, KSAT followed their crews to the coast to see those oyster shells start the decontamination process. Volunteers took clean shells, bagged them and then laid them on the bottom of the bay.
The effort was led by Sink Your Shucks and the Harte Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. They’re rebuilding oyster reefs in the Gulf by using recycled shells to give baby larvae a safe surface to grow on.
KSAT won a Regional Lone Star Emmy in the Environment/Science category for the story, which was published in May.
Over the last eight months since then, STCI has grown rapidly in the city. Now, they’ve checked off San Antonio as a regular collection site for used oyster shells.
“We have 65 restaurants in San Antonio lined up that we’re going to hit,” Brown said.
The first business to say “yes” was Little Em’s Oyster Bar in Southtown.
“To be sitting here with this as your first business in this initiative, how does it feel?” KSAT reporter Avery Everett asked.
“It’s great,” STCI President and founder Eric Duxstad said.
Here’s how collection works in San Antonio:
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You order oysters at a local restaurant.
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Places like Little Em’s save the shells.
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Mission Compost crews collect the shells weekly, clean them and store them until they’re ready to head back to the coast and the bay.
“It’s been a lot of work,” Brown said. “It’s just a natural process.”
Right now, Brown said his team is trying to build the infrastructure to get even more businesses on board.
“Once the word gets out, we’ve not had anybody object,” he said. “We hope we can plug and play this across the country.”
Check out KSAT’s Emmy award-winning story:
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