I am not aware of many who take the effort to recycle cables vice discarding it in the rubbish bin. I believe it is more of a revenue stream.
...also, "greenwashing" for publicity purposes and to help dissuade governments from taking more effective steps to reduce landfill. Also, I believe that some of the 'plasticising agents' used to make plastic less brittle are ecological no-nos, too.
Personally, my experience is that the magsafe/lightning-era cables are far more reliable than the old banana plugs, where not only the cables frayed but the sockets in the Mac tended to fail... and that's from years working with a bunch of Mac users who would usually come to me if they needed a new cable. But, then, my gran used anecdotal evidence 40 times a day and she lived to 103...
Its really impossible to tell where the truth lies, between some people who really do treat cables as if they were bits of string, different batches of cables in different regions and variable environmental factors (sunlight, temperature, high humidity, low humidity/air conditioning....)
Also, there's the Apple "Horns" effect (the opposite of the "halo" effect) when that no-name power cable made by Happy Luck Light Corp breaks, people are less likely to tweet about it.
