Apple has been on a "Green" initiative lately and has been doing a decent job. It appears one area they could use some help in, is with whoever is shipping the replacement USB adapters back to customers who replaced them via the mail. The recent recall of the iPhone’s power adapter could be replaced in-store or via mail, but those who used snail mail have been receiving boxes that are many, many times larger than what they need to be. There seems to be a little disconnect going on between parts of the company, but chances are, Apple is not even shipping the replacements themselves.
It takes time to implement plans in a large company and here is a good example of that being played out before our eyes. If you want to go "Green" just in your house, it would take some time to put that all in place. You have to give it to Apple for trying to do what they think is right. Now lets hope it plays out better for them in the future.