House of Marley’s attempt at sustainable earbuds has one big flaw

In Mashable’s series Wasted, we dig into the myriad ways we’re trashing our planet. Because it’s time to sober up.

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“Sustainable earbuds” are something of an oxymoron. Earbuds are necessarily tiny, which makes them extremely difficult to recycle. That leads to more waste, which doesn’t make them very “sustainable.” Womp womp. 

Still, one company says it has created them. 

House of Marley is a company with an “eco-conscious identity” that makes headphones, speakers, and even a turntable. It is associated with the Marley family (as in Bob). This summer, it debuted the Liberate Air Truly Wireless Earphones, the company’s first wireless headphones. 

House of Marley calls the new buds “sustainably designed” because they’re built for a long shelf-life and made with recycled and eco-conscious materials, like fabric made from recycled plastic. It also donates a portion of the company’s proceeds to a reforestation organization, One Tree Planted. (It didn’t say how much it donates, but said it’s responsible for the planting of 186,000 trees to date.)

Our friends over at PCMag gave the buds a mostly favorable review for their bass and high-quality sound overall. And after using them for a week, I agree. Pairing was easy (but not seamless), calls were clear, and the music came through rich and bass-y. Still, it’s the sustainability claims that have me the most intrigued.

The waste generated by Bluetooth earbuds (notably AirPods) has been a contentious topic of late. Earlier this year, debate raged on Twitter about just how bad Apple’s AirPods were for the environment. Vice called them “a tragedy” for the planet, while Medium’s One Zero determined that while AirPods are technically recyclable, there’s little infrastructure and incentive for users to actually recycle them. 

It’s hard to argue that tiny, mostly plastic electronics filled with valuable metals can be sustainable. House of Marley’s approach is by no means perfect, but it is encouraging because creating a demand for eco-friendly electronics could have a ripple effect beyond the product itself.

Image: rachel kraus / mashable

Before we talk aesthetics and functionality, let’s get one thing out of the way: AirPods just do not work for me. AirPods sit inside your ear, but don’t have the suction of a silicone earphone that true in-ear buds do. I need the security of ear tips to feel properly attached to my sound (and my tiny device). 

That makes me prone to like the House of Marley earbuds on a basic design level. The cups come in three sizes (the middle size works for me). Situated above the tips, the body is an inch-long oval that rests on top of my ear. The outside is a nice, pretty bamboo surrounded on the sides by matte black silicone, which makes them look moderately stylish. They fit well, stayed put during sweaty exercise, and were overall comfortable.

That said, my partner, who *loves* his AirPods, said that the design was uncomfortable for him. Listen, you’re either inner ear, or you’re out.

The buds come in a three-ish inch black case. It’s small enough to fit easily in a purse and a regular size pocket, but doesn’t have the portability of the AirPods case. The top of the case is covered in a mesh black fabric, while the bottom is lightly speckled plastic. That’s where you’ll find the charging indicator lights, micro USB port, and pairing button.

Speaking of pairing, all you have to do the first time you want to pair your headphones is open up the case with the buds in them, and let them connect. Then navigate to your Bluetooth settings on your phone or computer, and pair. Subsequently, just open the case, and the buds will find their mate. PCMag said pairing gave them some trouble, and there are several reviews complaining about pairing on the company’s site. I encountered a pairing issue when my buds disconnected of their own volition, and I couldn’t re-pair them because I was working out and didn’t have the case with me. The fact that you seem to need the case to pair is definitely a drawback.

The earbuds have a small round indent on both sides. Tapping the indent twice or three times on each side lets you play or pause music, pick up or hang up a call, activate Siri, and skip or go back a song. These gestures all worked for me, but sometimes it took a couple tries.

One pro was battery life. I’ve heard some friends complain that their Bluetooth earbud cases go dead when they’re not plugged in, even if you’re not using the buds. I used my earbuds for about an hour every day for a week, and never needed to charge my case. The earbuds have nine hours of battery life, while the case carries 32 hours. Not too shabby.(AirPods have 5 hours of battery life and a case with 24 hours.)

As for sound, I liked these headphones. I pumped up the volume on a song with the tinniest highs and the bassiest lows I could think of — Steve Aoki’s remix of Kid Cudi x Ratatat’s “Pursuit of Happiness” — and the tiny speakers delivered (I was pumped!) They’re not technically noise cancelling, but they definitely blocked the outside world for me. Perhaps most importantly, my mother said my phone call to her on my new Bob Marley headphones sounded clearer than on my over-ear wired headphones. 

There are plenty of well functioning earbuds out there. The main reason you would buy House of Marley headphones (which are not cheap at $149.99) are the company’s claims about the product’s environmental sustainability. 

House of Marley has a page that details the materials used in its products, what makes each material “sustainable,” and where specifically they’re used. The earbuds and case utilize recycled silicone, bamboo, and fabric made from organic cotton and recycled plastic. 

Apple has a similar “Environment” page, and uses sustainable materials such as recycled aluminum in laptops. It even gives “environmental report cards” for most Apple products. However, there are no specifications on this page for AirPods — although Apple does stress that AirPods are meant to have long lives, and eventually be recycled.

“AirPods are built to be long-lasting,” Apple told Mashable over email. “As with all of our products, we work closely with our recyclers to ensure AirPods are properly recycled and provide support to recyclers outside of our supply chain as well.”

Image: screenshot: rachel kraus / mashable / Apple

The clarity and transparency from House of Marley is nice. Unfortunately, however, the company doesn’t provide information about the metals that go into its electronics, which have the most environmental impact.

For example, extracting the lithium in lithium-ion batteries involves drilling massive holes in the salt flats of Bolivia, which has diverted water from farmers and contaminated local water supplies. Another crucial ingredient, cobalt, usually comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the gold rush for the mineral has encouraged child labor, and industrial runoff from “artisanal mines” pollutes the land and water. 

House of Marley says the longer battery lives of its wireless earbuds make them more sustainable than other options. 

“We have designed the Liberate Air with long battery life per charge and less times needed to recharge per week of use,” said Josh Poulsen, director of product development for House of Marley. 

If you lose an earbud, the company will replace it for $59. It can also replace parts around the battery if they wear out before the battery does (that’s priced at the time of repair).

“The batteries should last well beyond the life of the technology,” Poulsen said. “Other wearing parts however can be replaced such as the recycled silicone.”

Of course, the most sustainable option would be to not buy new products at all. But with the extinction of the headphone jack, if you need to buy new headphones, you might as buy a pair that lasts for awhile. 

Still, there’s one glaring problem. One of the biggest issues with the sustainability of earbuds (and all electronics) is disposability. How many times have you had to buy a cheap pair of headphones after your previous cheap pair crapped out for some reason? Despite the fact that House of Marley stresses that it designs products to have a longer life cycle, it does not offer battery replacements. 

“This is all you really need to know about the Marley product,” said Jim Puckett, the executive director and founder of the Basel Action Network (BAN), referring to a customer service interaction from the House of Marley website (pictured below). “It is a disposable product. Its batteries cannot be replaced and the best a customer can do is mail it back to the manufacturer.”

Image: screenshot: jim puckett

BAN assesses the environmental impact of products, and has shed light on the often unethical practices of so-called developing world recycling centers. To Puckett, the bottom line is that a disposable, tiny electronic device is difficult to recycle on a technical level, and unlikely to be recycled in the first place, because it is an arduous step for consumers to take.

House of Marley has a partnership with Best Buy that lets people bring in their headphones for recycling, and says that “owning the end-of-product life cycle and implementing their own take back program is a goal for House of Marley.” Still, Puckett is unconvinced of the “sustainability” of these “sustainable earbuds.”

“Metals do not compost.”

“Making the product out of bamboo and silicon is advantageous for the environment,” Puckett said. “But in comparison with the battery and the circuitry, which will not be as environmentally benign in their material use, those pluses get weighed down by the negatives. No product that is sustainable can at the same time be disposable unless it can be composted naturally without aid in the environment. Metals do not compost.”

Another challenge with recycling small electronics is that it costs more to extract the valuable materials (like those in the batteries) than recyclers could get from selling the salvaged metals. As Will Oremus writes in Medium about AirPods, “They are recyclable — but apparently not yet in an economical way.”

Perhaps those economics could shift if there is more of a market for sustainable electronics. If consumers show they want earbuds and lithium-ion batteries made from recycled materials, and there are companies willing to provide them, that could incentivize more companies to make recyclable products in the first place.

House of Marley is a small brand that’s unlikely to put much pressure on that supply-demand scale. But, given the mountains of waste we’re creating with our appetite for electronics, anyone trying to do things differently is taking a step in the right direction. 

Plus, the bamboo looks great.