"COCO" THE OCTOPUS
Love Blue Inc. collaborated with TerraCycle to create Coco the Octopus, a one-of-a-kind sculpture designed to bring attention to ocean pollution and the vital importance of protecting our oceans. This unique project was featured in the Netflix documentary Our Oceans, narrated by Barack Obama, providing a global platform to amplify our message. Every piece of Coco was made from trash collected during Love Blue’s beach cleanups, primarily in Wildwood Crest, with additional contributions from our other chapters across the country, transforming waste into a striking visual representation of the very problem we aim to solve. By repurposing recovered materials into art, Coco demonstrates how community action, creativity, and environmental stewardship can come together to make a meaningful impact. This collaboration not only highlighted the scale of pollution affecting our coastlines but also served as an inspiring example of how collective effort can educate, engage, and motivate people to protect our oceans for generations to come.
CIGS INSIDE SURFBOARD
Love Blue Inc. and Mellow Grove came together with a shared vision to raise awareness about ocean pollution in a bold and creative way. The *"Cigs Inside"* project was born out of this collaboration, starting with summer beach cleanups in Wildwood Crest. Volunteers from both organizations, including Love Blue Inc.'s chapters across the country, gathered cigarette butts—one of the ocean's most harmful pollutants. With every cleanup, they saved up thousands of cigarette butts, with a larger plan in mind.
The plan culminated in transforming an 11-foot Ron Jon surfboard into a 6'6 performance board. First, the board was cut down, then meticulously sanded and shaped for precision. On the top of the board, they carved out indents, which would soon be filled with the thousands of collected cigarette butts. After carefully embedding the butts into the indents, they were glossed with resin to secure them in place, ensuring that the symbolic message would endure. The final step involved wrapping and glossing the entire board to give it a sleek, finished look.
But the message didn’t stop there. Mellow Grove’s artist, Benny "Tripp" Smith, crafted a lifesize cigarette on the back of the board, complete with both Love Blue Inc. and Mellow Grove logos imprinted on the bottom. The surfboard now serves as a striking reminder of the devastating impact cigarette butts have on our beaches, highlighting their status as the number one ocean pollutant.
Through this innovative project, the *"Cigs Inside"* surfboard isn’t just a work of art—it’s a call to action for surfers, skaters, and environmental advocates alike to help protect the ocean and keep our shores clean.
BOTTLE CAP SUNGLASSES
Love Blue Inc. and Mellow Grove joined forces once again to tackle ocean pollution with their latest project: the *"Bottle Cap"* sunglasses. Much like their previous initiative, the project kicked off with collaborative beach cleanups, this time focusing on collecting discarded plastic bottle caps that litter the shores. Volunteers from Love Blue Inc.’s chapters and Mellow Grove worked tirelessly to gather the caps, saving them for a larger, innovative purpose.
Once the caps were collected, the real transformation began. The team developed a unique process, carefully melting the plastic to a specific temperature. This approach kept the material nontoxic, preventing it from burning or smoking while making it malleable enough to mold into new shapes. The versatility of the recycled plastic allowed the team to experiment with various creations, including skate grinding rods and downhill longboard sliding pucks for gloves.
However, the true highlight of the project came when Mellow Grove artist Benny "Tripp" Smith, who had been experimenting with materials in his college workshop, envisioned something even more impactful—*Bottle Cap* sunglasses. Using the resources and tools available at his school, Benny crafted the sunglasses from melted plastic, turning ocean waste into a wearable statement of sustainability. The result was not just a pair of sunglasses, but a symbol of how creativity and environmental consciousness can come together to create something functional and stylish.
The *"Bottle Cap"* sunglasses serve as a reminder of the growing plastic problem in our oceans and inspire others to see waste in a new light—where even the smallest discarded item can be transformed into something meaningful. Through this project, Love Blue Inc. and Mellow Grove continue to lead the way in turning pollution into purpose, one bottle cap at a time.
