WEEE recycling - teaching

Here's an illustration of the silliness of it:

If one goes to one's local model shop in the UK and buys a new electric railway locomotive, the shop is obliged, should the customer request it, to take an old electric railway locomotive from the customer for recycling free of charge under the WEEE directive for disposal at an approved recycling point. If one takes in a coach or a wagon for a new coach or wagon, the directive does not apply, nor does it apply to a replacement model aeroplane engine, for example.

"The law is an ass"?