I went there, they give me insructions to print labels they'll send me, find a box, pad it appropriately, attach the labels and then ship it.

It's going in the landfill.

First you said they don't accept recycling.

Now you claim you "went there" and discovered they do accept recycling but only if you mail it.

One of those is necessarily false, since I doubt you went to the Apple Store in between your comments.

However, I suspect both your claims are wrong, because Apple stores absolutely accept old devices to recycle directly. (They also provide mail-in options for people who don't have one they can visit directly.)

From your many comments, it seems like you have an ideological axe to grind that somehow your device can't be recycled, despite abundant evidence to the contrary and lots of people here trying to help you.

You being unwilling to spend the barest amount of effort to recycle it is your problem, not Apple's.

If they took it at their store, fine. If they want me to take an hour to go print a label (I don't have a printer), and then another hour to package it up and ship it. I'll pass.

They also say to erase the data before shipping it - which I can't do.

As another commenter put that I also agree with:

You being unwilling to spend the barest amount of effort to recycle it is your problem, not Apple's.

sounds to me like a you problem.

That's mostly my conclusion, unfortunately, also. There is also some nonzero culpability of cost of time-money-hassle Apple and local municipalities shift onto the owner too.