I generally operate under the belief that companies avoid outright lying, particularly major ones like Apple. But, they may be stretching the truth, such as by salvaging a neglible amount of material and then chucking the rest. I'm not seeing a clear process on how they could do more than that.
Also, even if Apple is able to extract and reuse the metals or some such, the complete inability to swap out the batteries without destroying the device, combined with reports that battery capacity reaches unusable levels within a couple years, is of great concern.
It's LifeHacker, consider the source:
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-recycle-your-airpods-183357932...
"In a phone conversation, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that these AirPods are then distributed to recyclers who specialize in electronic waste along with instructions on how to break apart the components."
So, nothing like Daisy. I sadly don't find this encouraging.
With all possible respect, this is terrible logic. Apple recycles iPhones, but that doesn't mean you can throw iPhones in your household recycling.
Putting non-recyclables into the recycling can contaminate and ruin the entire load. As a general rule, if you're not sure whether something can be recycled, you should err on the side of not recycling it. https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/3/12/18252188/recycling-wron...