I’ve been avoiding these because they seem like wasteful fast fashion. I imagine having to throw them out in ~2-3 years, where as my over ear Beyers will likely last the rest of my life.
The plastic halves of the earbud casings are ultrasonically sealed together; you have to break them apart to get at the guts (and IIRC the battery is also soldered in). Just look up the iFixit teardown; they're completely unrepairable. My bet is, they are just swapping them out with refurbs or new units and writing off the loss against their AppleCare earnings.
I'm sure you're right about the first bit, and that calling it "battery replacement" is a sin of omission and/or over-simplification. As an engineer you're offended, but for average consumers, the result is what matters.
It's a stretch to call it greenwashing, though. Apple has supported AirPods recycling since its introduction. In the case of AirPods specifically, Apple pays recyclers for the manual labor required to recover materials, even though it significantly exceeds the value of the materials being recovered.
It's not a stretch to call it greenwashing when a replacement is marketed as a repair, no matter what else they do. Especially since a full replacement for battery drain inevitably leads into their recycling process - if they think that their recycling process is even better than replacing the battery, why lie?
> Apple pays recyclers for the manual labor required to recover materials, even though it significantly exceeds the value of the materials being recovered.
The criterion for recycling isn't whether it's profitable or not. Why would you get any recognition for profitably recycling?
Of course it can be argued that if apple had designed them for easy battery replacement repair would be so easy as to always be greener.
Their lifespan is, at best, the lifespan of the battery (in terms of useful recharge cycles). This is the dirty secret of the vast majority of wireless earbuds on the market, regardless of their cost.
If one metric ton's worth of AirPod fun were to be had, ending right now, the fun would have started in 1858 BC.
I'd say it's worth it.