...I really don't understand how people rationalize that manufacturers should be responsible for disposing of the goods that they manufacture. That is not their role. They are called "manufacturers" because that is exactly what they do, they manufacture things. They make products for you to buy, and if, at some indeterminate point in the future, you decide that you no longer want that product, or that product stops functioning and it is not economical / practical / wise to have it fixed, the onus should be placed upon you or someone else to responsibly dispose of it.
I'll just go ahead and get it out of the way right now, that I am not the most environmentally-minded person ever, in fact I probably group in with the least environmentally-minded people. That said, I think the degree to which the government is regulating environmental friendliness is kind of out-of-hand, it seems nowadays that "for the environment" is almost as strong a motivator / excuse as "for the children", except it's perceived as "okay" because all they're taking is our convenience and money, not our freedoms. For example, where I live they recently passed a by-law that it is illegal to sit with your car idling, which I feel is totally ridiculous. If I want to wait for someone to be ready to be picked up, or if I want to just run into the house, or any of a myriad of things, and leave my car running for some reason (convenience, keep the A/C going, whatever) then it's my car, and my gas. I pay for the maintenance on the car, and I pay for the fuel, so it should be all the power to me. Now I haven't had any sort of run in with any over-zealous cop actually enforcing said by-law, but I can see the day coming. Needless to say, this by-law isn't changing my behaviour, it's just going to make me pay a fine down the road, and how does that really help the environment?