Drop Empty Oyster Shells at Starbucks

Grab a cup of coffee, drop-off oyster shells.

Only in the bay area could those two actions be simultaneous. The Severna Park Starbucks at 573 Ritchie Highway, is now accepting empty oyster shells as donations to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).

The Severna Park location is one of the four official drop-off locations in Maryland. Shells can be dropped in the cage in the rear parking lot, next to the drive through.

The empty oyster shells are the foundation of the CBF's Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts, according to the group's website. The foundation recycles the shells into more oyster reefs and repopulates the bay with more oysters.

According to the CBF's website, oyster shells are becoming increasingly scarce.  Shells that would typically be thrown away are saved and used in a variety of oyster-restoration projects through CBF's Save Oyster Shell program.

Your recycled shells are used as homes for baby oysters (spat) and are placed in tanks of water with millions of microscopic oyster larvae swimming and attaching to the shells, according to the website. After a few days the spat-on-shell will be used to build a new oyster bar.