It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but if a product can only exist if it’s consumer-unfriendly, perhaps it shouldn’t exist at all.
Sure wireless earphones can be convenient, but the extra e-waste, the non replaceable batteries, the Bluetooth transceivers, the DACs used (while the device you’re streaming from almost certainly already has these things) is super wasteful.
I think if we have any chance as a society, we need to start thinking about the products we use and how they are produced and how much waste they create, instead of just how convenient they are at the time.
I agree and that’s the point I was making, wireless ear buds are completely disposable and likely can’t be anything but. Not sure why I got downvoted to hell.