Presuming recycling of products should be a manufacturer's responsibility in the first place, will it take government regulation to enact these sort of initiatives?

A number of companies have already done this to an extent, though I think it really will take government intervention to make it a much wider reality. Although it's still reasonably early days in terms of the WEEE directive in Europe, it's going to be interesting to see the degree to which companies actually comply with it in terms of how difficult/easy it is to get the tech we're buying today taken back in a few years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Electrical_and_Electronic_Equipment_Directive