http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/06/embodied-energy-of-digital-technology... if the energy cost of the plastics injection molding is enough to power a 30 watt laptop for 1,000 days (3 years), then clearly, recycling of the plastic, doing exactly the same thing, is *not* doing the environment any favours.
I don't see where in the article it states such a cost. I does mention pretty much exactly this cost when talking about the price of the memory chips, IIRC.
Stefan