> As for the AirPods, and true wireless earbuds in general, I find this product category to be the most wasteful. Unless someone comes up with a type of earbuds that have easily replaceable batteries, I’m not interested in buying something that’s bound to become e‑waste in a relatively short period of time.

Aren't the batteries the most wasteful, least recyclable/reusable part of the airpods? They're so small I can't imagine that still throwing the battery away and putting in a new one nets to much gain.

I would guess that the old wired airbuds was responsible for more waste than airpods. So much more disposable and less durable.

I’ve had the same thoughts about this. I checked, and a MacBook Pro battery is about 30 times larger than the batteries in AirPods Pro. The environmental costs probably don’t scale perfectly with mass, but still, you’d need a lot of pairs of AirPods to leave the same mark as a single laptop.