[recycledmatt]

If we use the 4 gram number, 240 million grams is about 264 tons. In recycling terms, that is really nothing - the equivalent of about 10 well packed sea containers or 13 tractor trailers. Some decent size single facilties can do that in a day.

[JoBrad]

But a gram of AirPods is more expensive to recycle than a gram of plastic, because it’s more complex. That makes it more expensive, and presumably less likely to be recycled after being discarded.

[recycledmatt]

The recycling isn’t the expensive part, it’s the collection. If someone had 20 tons of these, they might actually be able to be paid for the value. It would most likely go to a battery smelter and they would burn / melt off the non-battery in the slag. Imagine collecting 20 tons 4 grams at a time though, and when they come in it is not 100 or 1000 units at a time, it’s one mixed with many other categories of material.

The real complexity is in a clean, sorted and segregated stream to recycle large quantity’s at once, and I don’t see that given the fractured state of current collections.