BATON ROUGE - Several Baton Rouge oyster restaurants are joining the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana's is Oyster Shell Recycling Program.

The program was first established in 2014. Restaurants with the program discard their shells in bins that are picked up by a contractor several times a week. The shell is transported to a curing site, and placed into mesh bags.

The shell is then returned to the waters of coastal Louisiana to create living shorelines. These provide habitat for new oysters to grow, slow the rate of erosion and minimize storm surge during hurricanes and tropical storms.

One of the restaurants joining is the Acme Oyster House on Perkins Rd.

"It'll be a good thing. I mean I can tell you to get Louisiana oysters instead of having to go out of state to get oysters. We keep our oysters growing, and we keep serving Louisiana oysters. The best oysters are here in Louisiana," manager Darryl Davis said.

Davis and the oyster house have been at their Perkins Rd. location for over 15 years.

With LSU football season starting, it's now one of their busiest times of the year. This brings many from out of town, which means more oysters sold and more oysters recycled.

"We talked about it like a year ago, but we're really now moving forward with it. Starting next week, we're actually going 100 percent with it," Davis said.

Another Baton Rouge oyster spot joining the program is Jolie Pearl. In a statement to WBRZ, they said anything they can do to restore the coast and recycle waste instead of dumping it in the trash, is a big ordeal to them.

The first day of shell pick-up for the Baton Rouge restaurants is September 4.