Always more practical, always less ecological. This maxim can easily be applied to the entire category of in-ear headphones. wireless popularized by the essential AirPods, the best-selling models in the world. Headphones that operate using batteries that are very difficult to replace, immediately registering an expiration date (or obsolescence, as the term goes). Apple’s new AirPods Pro 2 are no exception to the rule and have just been dismantled by the iFixit site, both literally and figuratively.
It’s very simple, after his famous tear down, an exercise that consists of completely disassembling the product, the specialists at iFixit have awarded the AirPods Pro 2 the terrible repairability score of 0/10. It is indeed impossible to replace and repair anything, both at the level of the headphones themselves and of the charging box with which they are delivered. Any attempt will inevitably end the same way: the product will be broken.
Equally serious, even at the end of their life, the AirPods Pro 2 remain – like their predecessors, by the way – very bad candidates for recycling. There are certainly metals and components that could be recycled, but this process will require time and know-how that recyclers are unlikely to have, with the risk that a non-functional pair will simply end up in the trash. If the repairability rating of the AirPods Pro 2 is 0, its environmental rating is therefore identical with a 0 pointed!
It should be noted in all transparency that other brands, although officially very keen on durability and repairability, do not do much better, and that the problem lies in the approach of brands to this category of particularly miniaturized products. The proof, Fairphone sells a pair of intras true-wireless, the Earbuds, and focuses its “responsible” communication on the use of fair and recycled materials, as well as the integration of a battery that lasts. No commitment is made on the rest and these headphones therefore appear as disposable products in essence.
All in contradictions
iFixit nevertheless highlights the ambiguities of Apple’s environmental discourse. There are major postures, promises to offset its emissions, the use of “zero carbon” aluminum, megabattery projects to help the adoption of renewable energies, the purchase of green energy to power its infrastructures. , the opening of personal repair programs for its devices, recycled packaging and, of course, all the non-binding commitments made by the company that passes for a queen of the greenwashing in some aspects.
But behind the green curtain hides one of the most powerful behemoths in the tech sector, which sells hundreds of millions of phones, computers and headphones a year, in a market where devices are generally attributed 70% of their carbon footprint. to their manufacturing processes. Having a more virtuous approach to one’s activity is obviously necessary, but minimizing, compensating for or hiding this impact at a time of climate emergency, which calls for sobriety and slowing down, is less and less audible for part of the society.