Over the past few years, the AirPods line has grown to include three different and popular styles.
If you’ve had them for a while and use them frequently, you may need to recharge them more frequently than you used to in order to get anything close to the advertised battery life.
If you’ve had the first-generation or second-generation AirPods for years, their batteries may be on their last legs. So, what can be done with these obsolete AirPods that are nearly dead?
The capacity of Apple earbuds’ batteries to keep a charge is the lifespan-limiting element. Each earbud consists of many chips, microphones, and speakers and weighs around 4 grams.
Without a cable, the earbud is powered by a small cylindrical battery with around 1% of the capacity of an iPhone’s battery.
Similar to the AirPods’ batteries, lithium-ion batteries degrade with time. Consequently, its battery life per charge may decrease substantially after many months of usage. How long it takes depends on how frequently they are used.
Apple does not provide the expected number of charge cycles for the batteries in the standard AirPods, Pro, and Max versions.
How long they last mostly depends on how frequently you charge and use them. Most users agree, though, that the original AirPods will last about two years before the battery starts to get weaker, and it’s unlikely that the Pro will last longer.
Every time the batteries are recharged, they lose a tiny amount of capacity. Unfortunately, this decrease is permanent, and the batteries lose all of their power over time because they can only go through a certain number of cycles before they can’t hold a charge anymore.
Donate Them
Donations are another feature that Podswap provides. If you give your AirPods to Podswap, you will not receive a replacement pair in the mail.
It’s just to give more products to Podswap so they can sell them to other customers, or at the very least to recycle the AirPods properly. It is preferable to do this instead if you’re already planning to throw away your AirPods.
In contrast to replacing your Pods, Podswap will take a pair of AirPods, your charging case, a single AirPod, physically broken AirPods, etc. Podswap will ensure that your AirPods are recycled or reused, regardless of their condition.
Sell Your AirPods
As lithium-ion batteries are used to power AirPods, it is likely that they will stop working after a few years. It is known that these batteries decay with each charge, and sellers are aware of this fact.
Due to this, there are not many locations ready to purchase used ones, although there are some. Used and older items from these stores are sold at different prices depending on their condition and model.
You may sell these items on Amazon, BuyBack, eBay, and RefurbMe. Through our partner, SellYourMac, it is simple and straightforward to sell your used Apple products.
Free delivery is included with all purchases. Before selling your old AirPods, you must clean them well (for obvious reasons!).
Replacement Option
This service was discovered while reading a Cult of Mac story on Apple News. The post talked about how Pods Wap lets people who already have AirPods recycle them for a small fee of $60.
This is done by putting a brand-new battery in your AirPods instead of the old one. Doesn’t this sound like something Apple should provide? In fact, it’s not. Therefore, the Podswap team decided to step up to the plate.
They took it upon themselves to disassemble AirPods, determine how to securely replace the battery within, and then develop a business model based on doing so.
The outcome is a service that is user-friendly and environmentally conscious. You’ll save money, reduce waste, and make your AirPods last much longer than what Apple intended. It’s wonderful news for everyone.
Lost one?
Examine individuals selling individual AirPods on eBay and Craigslist. You might also be able to find refurbished AirPods and AirPods Pro at a discount, but this is risky because it’s hard to tell how good the battery (or the headphones) are.
If you’re considering purchasing refurbished or used AirPods from any source, a UV device sanitizer might be a worthwhile investment, as it is applicable to more than just AirPods.
Effortless Recycling
Sending the AirPods back to the company through Apple’s recycling program is the simplest method to recycle them.
This is possible with any of your old Apple devices. Recent versions of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac are eligible for Apple Store credit when traded in, although previous items and accessories often do not.
Unfortunately, AirPods fall into this group. If you recycle them this way, you will not receive cash. However, you will gain the satisfaction of reducing your electrical trash.
This is significant since electronic trash is one of the kinds of garbage with the greatest growth rate in the world.
To return your AirPods to Apple for recycling, go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Select the gadget you wish to trade in, and then select Other devices.
Choose AirPods from the dropdown menu, and then follow the rest of the steps to get Apple to take care of recycling your AirPods for free.
Conclusion
A spokeswoman for Apple confirmed over the phone that these AirPods are delivered to recyclers that specialize in electronic trash, along with instructions on how to disassemble the components.
Why not share this information with other facilities (or just on the AirPod box) if it is that simple? Now, the best and only way to make sure that your old AirPods won’t hurt the environment is to send them back to Apple.
Currently, the global e-waste crisis is at its apex, and Apple has already taken steps to reduce its carbon footprint. If you want to help save the environment by recycling or getting rid of your AirPods in another way, use one of the options above.
