We stumbled over a post in Maine Public suggesting gadget batteries may be designed to fail. Now that’s quite an allegation to make! However, small spent batteries are a nightmare to recycle, so we decided to investigate further. Is this really how the technology works … why don’t batteries last longer in gadgets? What about the environment?
Why Don’t Batteries Last Longer in Consumer Devices?
Maine Public begins by acknowledging its source as The Washington Post. Then it launches forth with a broadside against the maker of a famous brand of bluetooth wireless earbuds. They suggest the batteries start to fail after a couple years.
But the user can’t replace them because glue fixes them firmly in position. Maine Public suggests this might be “part of the master plan to get us to buy a new pair”. If that is the case, then is this an isolated incident or part of a trend, we wonder.
The bottom line is all conventional batteries are bound to wear out sooner or later. This is in the nature of the consumer market, and the alternative would probably be too expensive right now.
However, we can replace our auto tires easily because their design makes this possible. So why can’t we do the same with those wireless earbuds, Maine Public asks. Or are we following the wrong line of reasoning perhaps?
Has This To Do with Gadget Obsolescence Instead?
We live in an era of demanding instant gratification from the best product we can afford. So we could also argue the earbuds are obsolescent by the time the batteries fail. Therefore, in this instance the manufacturer is ‘doing us a favor’ by not overselling the design.
Perhaps, though the maker should be more upfront about the battery life. And consider making things easier for recyclers to dismantle the product to recover rare metals for future use. We would be less concerned if we knew all wireless earbuds were recycled that way. However, we very much doubt that this is the case.
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