Apple Offers 10% Off AirPods and More for Earth Day Device Recycling - MacRumors
Skip to Content

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

by

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.

airpods pro 3 blue
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.

Related Roundup: AirPods 5
Buyer's Guide: AirPods (Buy Now)
Related Forum: AirPods

Popular Stories

Surprise and Shine Live Coverage Article

Apple Event Live Blog: iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, and More

Wednesday September 9, 2026 9:10 am PDT by
Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event kicks off today at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, where we're expecting to see the foldable iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models, new AirPods 5 earphones, and perhaps some other announcements. Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company's TV app across various platforms. We...
Read Full Article • 1305 comments
AirPods Pro Beta Firmware 2

Apple Releases New AirPods Firmware With iOS 27 Features

Monday September 14, 2026 11:42 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, AirPods 4, and AirPods Max 2. The firmware is available for all of the above devices, and it will enable support for new iOS 27 features. The firmware has a build number of 9A348. In iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate, Apple is adding a new AirPods interface, a slider for Adaptive mode, and support for custom EQ....
Read Full Article • 73 comments
airpods 4 new new orange

Beyond iPhone 18 Pro: AirPods 5 in September, iPad Mini With OLED Display in October

Sunday August 30, 2026 7:25 am PDT by
In his newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that AirPods 5 will be released as early as this September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, a foldable iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 12, and the Apple Watch Ultra 4. Apple is holding an event on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. He also reiterated that he expects an iPad mini with an OLED display and...
Read Full Article • 18 comments

Top Rated Comments

E
Entilzha
22 weeks ago
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…
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LFO8 Avatar
LFO8
22 weeks ago
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 😅
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
JosephAW
22 weeks ago
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. :rolleyes:
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Happy_John Avatar
Happy_John
22 weeks ago

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. :rolleyes:
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.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
sw1tcher
22 weeks ago

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 ('https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in'), 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.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
dbc34
22 weeks ago

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…
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments