I hate this. All the electronic waste, batteries and whatnot for a 15 day trial. I hope such a thing wouldn't be allowed in EU with the stricter waste laws
Do you really need a new iPhone? No you do not. The iPhone 4 will do perfectly fine for now (according to some random bureaucrat), so the iPhone 5 should be illegal to sell until further notice.
Short of glass, most materials recycle with very low efficiencies. Even aluminium, which is often touted as being "highly recyclable" usually only reclaims around 85% of the input.
Aluminum is incredibly abundant in the earth's crust, but from what I understand it is the poster-boy for recycling because of the extreme difference in power costs between melting it down, and making it in the first place.
The parent raises a valid point that shouldn't be dismissed simply by carrying an idea to a comical extreme.
Quit the hyperbole.
And if you insist that it should have been printed, then what about leaving out the few hundred pages of advertising or sponsored content. After all, if they only printed the "real" content the magazine delivers, that would be minimally damaging to the environment.
If there's anything to complain about here it's that I doubt they made it easy or obvious to users that they couldn't recycle the whole magazine as you would normally. Instead, you'd need to tear off the electronics part and take it to an e-waste recycle and put the rest in a "normal" recycling bin.
Do you really have trouble understanding that part?
I'm a proponent of the idea that companies that sell you products should have to take them back at the end of their useful life. That is, Apple would take back your unwanted phone and be responsible for recycling or disposing of it, it would no longer be your problem. This would encourage companies to engineer products with longer useful lifespans, or to facilitate refurbishing instead of destruction.
Or just bake the cost of disposal into the sales price of the item.
Nope, I'm pretty sure it's the opposite. At any point in time, if you want to dispose of some electronic gadget in the EU, you can send it to the manufacturer for disposal, and sue them if they refuse. If the manufacturer does not have a local branch, then the onus is on the importer/distributor down the chain.
Unfortunately, most people don't know or simply can't be bothered.
I used to just drop stuff at the local skip/recycling centre, where they keep electronics in a separate area, because I knew people would scavenge it for parts; a few months ago the skip changed their policy and now forbid people from picking up anything from the "electronics area", under some health&safety-touting rule. I bet it's actually because electronics disposal in the EU is now big business, thanks to the above-mentioned directive: producers are now under de-facto blackmail, so they pay specialised companies to deal with their waste, which in turn rely on local skips to pick up stuff. These companies need to get hold of waste to get paid, so they basically stop people from recycling at the source. Politically speaking it's mission accomplished (establishing a "green" economy etc etc), but in practice it's actually discouraging people from recycling among themselves, which is the most energy-efficient way to tackle waste; and recyclable electronics still show up in non-diversified skips across the African continent (or worse).
Distributors need to provide centers to take stuff from consumers.
Consumers have a responsibility to look at the packaging to see if something can be thrown in the garbage or if it needs to be sent for special disposal.
at least that's how it works for bigger appliances (vacuums, washing machines), after all, you paid a separate "disposal fee" when you bought it.
Hate is also a fairly strong word.
But there are still many types of rechargable batteries that don't require special disposal. I wouldn't assume too much about this.
We have special bins for any batteries. The bins are available in many shops.
All packets of batteries (here) ask you to not just throw them into the trash but to send them to the special bins. This is part of law.
(http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=245)
This law is part of EU directives.
These batteries are supposed go into your regular trash, and into the regular landfill, as they only contain trace amounts of any metals (too little to spend any effort extracting them out). And are considered non-toxic as far as I know (but don't eat them).
The other types of batteries, the rechargeable types, are mostly recyclable and are not supposed to be thrown away.
I could be wrong though.
And that's why I'm happy I don't live in the EU.....too many people with this nanny-state attitude, who want bureaucrats managing every little detail of their lives.