This is a win for computer makers -- why recycle old hardware when you can throw it away to buy new stuff?
I suspect as pad devices and mobile phones take over the real mobile use cases, laptops will get a bit more expensive as the market shrinks.
There is an opportunity to build them a bit better and to make them a bit more recyclable/upgradeable. Each product manufacturer has to make small decisions like this across all areas if we are to achieve sustainable consumption.
The tricky bit is encouraging manufacturers to make those decisions.
On long term, the people who learn computing this way may be a market for new computers, and that makes it good for computer manufacturers.
Besides that, computers in a landfill is a terrible idea, ecology-wise.
They would probably prefer government programs to let those places buy new "modern" computers right now.