
AirPods Are Disposable and Hard to Recycle (2016) - okket
https://ifixit.org/blog/8690/airpods-are-disposable/
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_bxg1
I respect iFixit's ideals, but this is just ridiculous. Highlighting the lack
of repairability in a MacBook Pro is one thing, but AirPods are a marvel of
compact engineering. There's barely room for the battery; there is positively
no room in there to replace glue with clips or screws so that a few tinkerers
can try to fix them at home. Plus, you can replace just the earbuds or the
case on its own (it's unlikely you'll break both at the same time) for ~$60.

~~~
aarpmcgee
AirPods being a technological marvel does not negate the fact that its
disposable nature is a pretty big problem. As far as I am concerned, if the
environmental cost of the existence of a product is not factored in to its
design, it should not exist.

This may be a bit of a stretch, but on the same token, K-Cups being super
convenient does not negative the fact that they are an ecological nightmare.

~~~
_bxg1
What I'm saying is there's probably no reasonable way, given the current state
of the art, to create an equivalent product in a more repairable form. The
comparison to k-cups seems overblown, as a person throws away a couple of
those a day, whereas AirPods are quality devices (of a similar size) that will
last years at the minimum.

~~~
_bxg1
iFixit rightly makes noise about the pointless unrepairability of some other
Apple devices, but this one just feels like they're reaching.

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askafriend
This is just stupid.

Just take AirPods to an Apple store in any corner of the world or simply ship
directly to them to recycle almost any product.

[https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in](https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in)

iFixIt is just disingenuous in that they have a fixed view of what’s
acceptable and it highly favors their own business. Their content parades as
an objective viewpoint but isn’t by a longshot.

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eugeniub
The average Western European/North American consumes 220 pounds of plastic per
year. A pair of AirPods (0.016 pounds) are 0.007% of that figure. I think
there are much bigger categories in our plastic consumption that we might want
to target before AirPods.

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jeffbax
Love my AirPods, but if they can't even get a battery replacement that's a
huge downside.

As for disposal, like any electronic apple will at the minimum help recycle
them for you (as will others like best buy)

We definitely have new problems like k cups but our electronics tend to be
much smaller than those of old. More people are Marie Kondoing too. Just think
of all the waste we are avoiding just by virtue of digital games, music,
books,and movies.

There's still hope to be had, though we need to REDUCE across the board.

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perrohunter
I don’t like the narrative of ifixit, you cannot have this tiny a device and
have it build with bolts and screws.

I’d like to know if there’s any competitor on this category (Samsung galaxy
buds, pixel buds) that doesn’t have the same problem.

Besides, no battery can last forever, they all degrade, that’s how the current
tech works unfortunately. I do want Apple to offer cheaper battery
replacement, right now replacing the battery of the AirPods and case equals to
a brand new set of AirPods.

~~~
Melchira
iFixit has done a teardown of Samsung galaxy buds and rates them more
favorably than AirPods:
[https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown...](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Buds+Teardown/120693)

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auggierose
that's from 2016

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markstos
And with the popularity of the product, the environmental concerns of the
unrepairability are even greater and more relevant today.

~~~
johannsg
I admit that I know next to nothing about hardware engineering, but I can’t
fathom how it would be possible to continue to miniaturize consumer products
at scale while maintaining durability, quality and keeping them repair
friendly? Would love some one with the right background to explain how they
would design an AirPod like device that could be fixed by your average repair
professional/shop/dealer/etc (let alone me at home).

Recyclability is a concern though!

~~~
bigj0n
Maybe miniaturization isnt really a great goal?

At some point we are going to have to start trading convenience for
environment

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benatkin
Isn’t the environmental impact lowered by how expensive it is? By getting
AirPods they’re likely to spend less on other stuff that has a higher
environmental impact, like plane tickets, right?

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ianai
That feels wrong. For one, the environmental cost of goods/services are not
reflected in their prices, currently. Further, AirPods are luxury goods.
Purchasers are probably already high carbon users.

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cafebabbe
Also, they make you look so dumb. Wearing-Q-Tips-and-being- proud-of-it-dumb.
About 8.5 on the Google Glass Index.

9.5 if you wear them while riding electric monocycles.

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eugeniub
This is highly subjective. Almost no one in the real world is obsessed with
how "dumb" a pair of wireless earbuds looks.

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beatgammit
Are you sure? Aesthetics is a huge part of the success of a product. A lot of
wireless earbuds are much larger, and thus AirPods are much more desirable
(they look less stupid). People absolutely buy mostly based on aesthetics,
provided the functionality is reasonable. In fact, I argue that this is why
most people buy Apple products...

