These days bottles, cans, newspapers, printer cartridges, even mobile phones, can be recycled. Now it seems shells can be added to the list.

For about a year kitchen staff at the Little Creatures brewery in Geelong have been keeping discarded shells from the plates of mussels they sell to hungry customers.

At the Little Creatures brewery in Geelong the restaurant is recycling the used mussel shells for use in a project to restore shellfish reefs in Port Phillip Bay. Credit:Simon O'Dwyer

The shells are destined to find their way to the bottom of Port Phillip Bay as part of a landmark environmental project to recreate lost shellfish reefs and boost habitat for the bay's marine wildlife.

"They would otherwise just go in the bin," the manager of Little Creature Geelong, Paul Rogasch, said of the used shells from the 4700 plates of mussels sold each year at the brewery's restaurant.