Apple Offers 10% Off AirPods and More for Earth Day Device Recycling

[MacRumors]

Apple is offering 10% off AirPods, Beats, or accessories to customers who recycle an eligible iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac at a participating Apple Store through May 16.

The discount applies when the recycling and purchase are completed in the same transaction. The promotion runs from today, April 16, through to May 16. Products brought in for recycling undergo screenings, with eligible devices sent to Apple's advanced recycling systems, including Daisy and Cora, for further processing. See Apple's terms and conditions for more information.

The promotion was announced alongside Apple's annual Environmental Progress Report, which revealed a record 30% of material across all products shipped in 2025 came from recycled content.

Article Link: Apple Offers 10% Off AirPods and More for Earth Day Device Recycling

 

[MacUserFella]

How rare, it almost feels like a late April Fool's joke

 

[LFO8]

Hand down your earlier generation Apple devices to people who still can make use of them and want them. How’s that for a recycling?

But I can imagine Apple does not want that 😅

 

[Entilzha]

Too bad I can’t bring in my 1st gen AirPods for recycling and get the same discount.

Interesting how it has to be a high-value item for recycling…towards a discount for a lower value item. Hmm…

 

[JosephAW]

How about supporting perfectly older devices and computers with modern software updates instead of locking updates behind T2 chips and requiring higher ram requirements that force devices to go to landfills unnecessarily because they can not update with no work arounds. 🙄

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Hand down your earlier generation Apple devices to people who still can make use of them and want them. How’s that for a recycling?

But I can imagine Apple does not want that 😅

I agree 100% and I usually hand things down, but when I handed down my Series 6 watch, the battery was so bad it wouldn't last a full waking day, even with AOD off. Sadly a lot of these things are just done for when the battery wears out..Well, the watch, and AirPods, anyway... 😔

Phones and Macs are always handed down. I never sell or trade those.

 

[klasma]

They should offer 10% of the original price for returning old products for recycling on Earth Day.

 

[FightTheFuture]

How about supporting perfectly older devices and computers with modern software updates instead of locking updates behind T2 chips and requiring higher ram requirements that force devices to go to landfills unnecessarily because they can not update with no work arounds. 🙄

T2 chips? Are you seriously suggesting continuing support for Intel Macs in 2026? Davinci Resolve just opened to a notification that current versions are dropping Intel support.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

How about supporting perfectly older devices and computers with modern software updates instead of locking updates behind T2 chips and requiring higher ram requirements that force devices to go to landfills unnecessarily because they can not update with no work arounds. 🙄

Why landfill them? Seriously? Just use a version of macOS that is year or two out of date, it'll still get security updates. They make a perfectly good Linux or Windows machines after that.

 

[StuBeck]

FWIW, these prices are still higher than you can often find them without a trade in requirement at other retailers, and you get to reuse the device!

 

[sw1tcher]

Apple is offering 10% off AirPods, Beats, or accessories to customers who recycle an eligible iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac at a participating Apple Store through May 16.

I don't see how this is a deal. Even if the device being recycled is worth nothing through Apple's trade-in program, with the 10% discount you'd still be paying more for the item (e.g. AirPods Pro 3) at Apple than you'd pay from Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Costco, and all the other places that almost always have them on sale.

AirPods Pro 3 are $249 from Apple. 10% off makes them $224.10. They're currently $199.99 on Amazon, Target, Costco, and Best Buy.

The higher priced products like the AirPods Max 2 are excluded from the discount promotion, otherwise that'd be an item worth doing the 10% discount on as it'd be less than from Amazon, Best Buy, etc.

 

[dbc34]

Too bad I can’t bring in my 1st gen AirPods for recycling and get the same discount.

Interesting how it has to be a high-value item for recycling…towards a discount for a lower value item. Hmm…

When i first read the title I immediately thought “I have several old AirPods that this would be great for”. Yeah I’m not turning in a $500 iPhone for $5 off a watch band. Sorry…

 

[Happy_John]

How about supporting perfectly older devices and computers with modern software updates instead of locking updates behind T2 chips and requiring higher ram requirements that force devices to go to landfills unnecessarily because they can not update with no work arounds. 🙄

It was a good run with OCLP, keeping older Macs going is a great thing to do, but it's coming to an end, as it did with PPC and 68K Macs. They're still great to have and keep fully functional, but sooner ( not yet, but soon), there simply won't be support for them.

I have some PPC and 68K macs as collectables, but they're simply not practical as daily machines in 2026. The same will eventually happen to Intel Macs.

Much as I love them, it's time to start letting go.

 

[tivoboy]

When i first read the title I immediately thought “I have several old AirPods that this would be great for”. Yeah I’m not turning in a $500 iPhone for $5 off a watch band. Sorry…

The only thing old AirPods are really good for is buying things like NEW Samsung Air Buds.. one can get $50-$100 often during their annual promotions.. it’s crazy.

 

[1rottenapple]

I just use a beats buds for the gym but I’m back to wired headphones. Same white headphones I’ve had for 15 years. How’s that for earth day and environmentalism. It survived a wash and dry cycle too haha.

 

[JosephAW]

Why landfill them? Seriously? Just use a version of macOS that is year or two out of date, it'll still get security updates. They make a perfectly good Linux or Windows machines after that.

Yes and that’s what we do, still running macOS Mojave to run legacy software, even have a few G4 computers running for proprietary software that was never migrated.
I feel sorry for the 2019 Mac Pro w T2 and also the M1 Macs, there will be no open core patcher for the M1 series, there’s arch Linux but they’ll be no macOS or Windows version that will work on that computer.

 

[t0rqx]

The cost of manufacturing Airpods is the same as a McDonalds Big Mac menu. This is not a good deal.

 

[LFO8]

It was a good run with OCLP, keeping older Macs going is a great think to do, but it's coming to an end, as it did with PPC and 68K Macs.

it sure was. It afforded me the use of my 2012 Mac Pro all the way up to June 2024 when I finally switched to Apple Silicon.

From the moment of the announcement of the M1 Mac at the 2020 Apple event (if my memory’s not failing me) we all knew Intel’s days were numbered as far as Mac’s go. And I started prepping for the switch. I didn’t want to be a first adopter due to a lot of audio software companies moving very slowly and still by June 2024 quite a few still haven’t converted to being fully Apple Silicon native (a lot of installers out there still prompting to install Rosetta to this day before being able to proceed).

But, being my 2012 MP was really starting to show it’s age I decided to cut loose the software from those companies and move ahead with the ones that did have their affairs in order (bye Native Instruments).

Now, halfway through 2026, I still see al lot of lamenting by current Intel Mac users and I am struggling to comprehend what their expectations were in all this.

I mean plans were made very clear by Apple 6 years ago already. And if you asked me, I’d rather see them drop Rosetta last year already because some developers will just not move on and commit the resources to the transition until the absolute last moment and their hand is forced.

 

[svish]

Good to know about this. Not a huge offer especially when AirPods can be had at significant discounts from other retailers but definitely direct discounts from Apple are uncommon.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Hand down your earlier generation Apple devices to people who still can make use of them and want them. How’s that for a recycling?

But I can imagine Apple does not want that 😅

The irony is that Recycle is the LEAST important of the three Rs. It's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in THAT order. Recycling still requires use of resources, and it's never gonna give back 100%, while reusing is the most earth-friendly you can get. Old stuff will still work. But Apple wants to made devices that are destined for e-waste yet claims to be all for environmentally friendly somehow. Soldered RAM and irreplaceable, glued in batteries are part of this confusion. Why?!