No - that's how hard it is for YOU to initiate the recycling of the machine.

The actual recycling bit is considerably harder.

Then why complain? Apple makes a machine that you think is hard to recycle (and some of the things you think are hard include a special screw--I bet that isn't very hard for Apple) and at the same time covers the full cost of recycling it. Who cares if they have to spend another 10 minutes, it's their problem.

It's also included in the cost of the machine. One of the reasons to buy a Mac (or some other pre-assembled computer) is that the price includes services like assembly, testing, and customer support.

Just so that I know — how exactly do you (I mean yourself) recycle Li-Ion battery cells?

I'm curious, because I never tried to do that at home. I always returned the whole appliance for recycling.

I don't. I do know what is involved though. You dig a big hole and put them in it. Then over 25 years or so the lithium seeps out into the water table...

you forgot to pot it in epoxy first.

They only do that in the EU and US.

Usually from what I understand in Europe at least, they pack them, mail them to an EU border country such as Turkey to comply with EU regs and certification and they're shipped on to the far east by the lowest bidder. They then appear in land fills and are picked apart by children for the copper...

FYI:

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/recycling_batteri...

If by "recycle" you will accept the alternative "reuse", I know many people who reuse batteries. I've done it once, when a hardware failure caused my laptop to become a doorstop. The battery was put into an RC project I was working on and the rest of the laptop was sent to true recyclers.