The Michigan Boating Industries Association is now calling on you to help raise money and save the planet. No you don’t have to be a superhero to help, in fact it’s much easier than peddling candy bars and far more fun than shlepping coupon books. All you have to do is collect old electronics to be recycled and mail them to Planet Green. If you don’t have any you could also help by buying remanufactured printer ink from Planet Green. Either way you will do something good for the environment and the MBIA will receive a check.

Global Marine Insurance, specializes in providing both commercial boat insurance and individual yacht insurance to consumers. Boating is integrally tied to the boat insurance industry as well as our passion for the water, so it’s our natural inclination to get involved any time we can help promote and protect the boating industry. The fact that we can help the MBIA and the environment at the same time makes this a fundraiser we simply can’t ignore.

We’re having so much fun helping out Michigan boating and the planet that we want you to join us. Just collect old electronics including:

* cell phones

* GPS

* calculators

* iPods

* digital cameras

* printing cartridges

* video game players

* pagers

* inkjet cartridges

* radar detectors

* mobile hot spots

* digital camcorders

* PDAs

* tablets

* iPads

Place the items in a box for recycling, and once you have 20 items download and print out the shipping label found here and drop them in the mail. If you have something to donate for recycling but don’t have the 20 items needed to ship to Planet Green then you can bring us your small recyclable item and we’ll add it to our collection and ship it for you. We’re happy to help because we know if it wasn’t for Michigan boaters we wouldn’t be in the boat insurance business. If you want to do even more, then the next time you need more ink consider ordering a remanufactured cartridge from Planet Green (15% will go to the MBIA).

Even if you’re not a boater participating in this fundraiser helps protect our backyard. Here’s some food for thought. It is estimated that each second more than 13 ink cartridges are thrown away and despite recycling efforts only 1 out of every 500 ink cartridges in the US gets recycled. That old iPod that you toss in the trash will likely be residing in the dump for the next 10,000 years and every week over 2 million mobile phones are sent to the landfill. These are intimidating statistics, but we can still create change with each recycled item.

Join your local boat insurance company and put a box in your closet marked recycle and start stashing the old electronics and printer cartridges that die there. You’ll be surprised how fast it fills up and how good you feel when you mail the old has beens off to become something new, all while helping the Michigan Boating Insdustries Association. For more information about how you can help the MBIA and the environment visit the Michigan Boating Industries Association website.