Because recycling plants are far and few between with many requiring you to be a resident to use the facilities. Many also charge for each piece brought in. They are also only open on weekdays when people have to work.
Recycling electronics and metals is good on paper, but there is very much a service problem.
This is a big problem with all sorts of disposal methods. It’s the reason I see so much stuff thrown out when it should be recycled or dumped in bushes or forests. If you want someone to do the right thing then you can’t make them drive across a damn city and/or charge them a disposal fee when they attempt to get rid of it. It sucks seeing mattresses dumped on the side of the road or on quiet hiking trails, but I know the reason they’re there is because getting rid of one properly is like $50-$75 which is goddamn absurd.
The manufacturers of phones provide security updates for 3-4 years, then expecting you to toss your device. Our economy is designed for non-sustainability and inefficiency.
Where I live, the local government tells us to recycle batteries by taking them to local stores. This despite no store doing recycling anymore because it’s unprofitable.
As a result, universities, for example, don’t have a way to throw them away. They just say follow the city rule, and pretend it’s solved… Because the rule is broken, rare employees who do have a way to recycle them just take them home for everyone.
Somewhere in this city there must be a mountain of fucking batteries that nobody knows how to throw away.
Btw. this is Japan…
I wonder what the commies would’ve built.
