Tampa Bay Watch non-profit transform old toilets into oyster reef balls

TIERRA VERDE, Fla. - Volunteers with Tampa Bay Watch use hammers and a marine-friendly concrete mix to create oyster reef balls to filter the water in the bay. Pieces of toilets are included.

"It's a great sub straight for the oysters to then attach to when they're floating around the bay as juvenile oysters every year," explained Eric Plage, a program partner with Tampa Bay Watch. "Once they glue themselves to the side of it, they grow into adult oysters which are great for biological filtration, filtering up to one to two gallons of water an hour, up to 50 gallons of water a day."

They've been testing the porcelain from old toilets in the mix. It's part of a pilot program with Tampa Bay Water.

"When folks take out their old toilet and put in a new high-efficiency one, that old toilet generally goes to the landfill, and we wanted to find something better to do with that toilet than just have it go to waste. So we were looking for opportunities on how to recycle these old toilets," said Amelia Brown, demand management program manager for Tampa Bay Water.

READ: Lakeland firefighters limit use of protective gear due to PFAS exposure

Tampa Bay Watch has added this porcelain mix from the crushed toilets to four reef balls.

"We've seen a bunch of little barnacles and some very small oysters start to grow on it," said Plage.

And that's promising news for this joint project.

"As the region continues to grow, we need to develop new water supplies. If we can save some of that water instead and do it at a lower cost, that really helps the region, and that benefits even the water bills," said Brown.

"This improves the water quality, so it attracts more people, more tourism – all those good things," Plage added.

Tampa Bay Water officials said they don't have a collection point for old toilets yet, but they are working on it.

For more information about the project, click here.