New Zealand/Aotearoa coastal habitats have been devastated from many anthropogenic stressors, including overharvesting of shellfish populations. With a large green-lipped mussel/kūtai aquaculture industry, NZ is well suited to trial the utilization of mussel shell from this industry to increase habitat complexity and restore biodiversity. The benefits of using industry-derived waste shell in oyster restoration has been proven, but there are still countries that transport mussel shell as an aquaculture by product to landfill. However, there is push-back from communities and local governance to return the shell to the seabed. To understand how to best utilise mussel shell for benthic restoration, a series of experiments were undertaken in the top of the South Island/Te Tau Ihu. These experiments aimed to test how the provision of new hard substrate in the form of shell material aids in the establishment of transplanted green-lipped mussels, along with understanding the biodiversity benefits of the shell reefs compared to adjacent soft sediment habitats. As well as its relevance locally, collectively these studies provide insight for using mussel shells, that would otherwise go to landfill, to maximize benthic restoration and the potential this can have to build biodiversity and increase the success of future restoration efforts.