Smart rings, earbuds, and some smartwatches are disposable, and that’s a problem

We live in a time of rapid innovation, with technology embedded into nearly every aspect of our lives. It wasn’t too long ago that it would have seemed impossible to have the advanced sensors and battery life found in smart rings. But now, smart rings are everywhere, as are smartwatches and earbuds. In fact, it’s rare to see someone out and about without at least one of those items.

While tech products can, of course, have a positive impact on our lives, unfortunately, they come at a cost. The Samsung Galaxy Ring, and all other smart rings, are essentially disposable devices that can’t be repaired. That’s also true of the Buds 3 that Samsung recently released and the new Google Pixel Watch 3. As a result, these products are contributing to our growing e-waste problem.

Lithium-ion batteries are part of the problem

But designs compound that problem

One problem driving these devices’ disposable nature is the lithium-ion batteries found inside. Lithium-ion batteries have a limited life span, with only so many charging cycles available before they are worn out. Each time you charge your device, you’re getting closer to fully depleting the battery. That wouldn’t be so bad, though, if the batteries could simply be replaced. For example, phone batteries are relatively easy to replace, so a tired battery doesn’t mean the rest of the device needs to get tossed.

Unfortunately, that’s not true for smart rings or the Samsung Buds 3. If you wear out the battery in your smart ring or the Buds 3, nothing can be done to replace it. The entire device needs to be thrown away. iFixit recently conducted a teardown of the new Galaxy Ring and declared the device “unrepairable.” It found the Oura Ring to be the same way. You simply cannot get into the devices without completely destroying it.

“The Galaxy Ring—and all smart rings like it — comes with a huge string attached: It’s 100% disposable, just like the AirPod-style Buds3 that Samsung just released. The culprit? The lithium-ion batteries,” Shahram Mokhtari wrote for iFixit.

Samsung and Oura aren’t alone in creating unrepairable tech, either. Google confirmed to Android Authority that the Pixel Watch 3 can’t be repaired, either. So, if you have issues with your device, you’ll get an entirely new watch instead of being able to have it fixed.

E-waste is a growing problem

Disposable tech is making it worse

Even before so many disposable devices hit the market, e-waste was a problem. According to the UN’s Global E-Waste Monitor 2024, a record 62 million tons of e-waste was generated in 2022, up 82% from 2010. To put that in perspective, the e-waste from 2022 “would fill 1.55 million 40-ton trucks, roughly enough trucks to form a bumper-to-bumper line encircling the equator, according to the report from ITU and UNITAR,” says the UN report. Those numbers are getting worse, too, and we are on track to generate an additional 2.6 million tons annually, hitting 82 million tons in 2030.

While some of this e-waste could be recycled, the UN report explains that only 22.3% of 2022’s e-waste was documented as having been properly collected and recycled. Recycling isn’t without its problems, either. Even recycling those products has environmental impacts and results in unsafe conditions for workers. Unfortunately, disposable products like smart rings, the Pixel Watch 3, and Buds 3 are exasperating the issue, adding to the e-waste problem in significant ways.

It is truly disappointing to see companies so flippant about creating disposable tech products. iFixit put it bluntly: “There’s nothing wrong with simple, but there is something wrong with unrepairable… We can’t recommend buying disposable tech like this.”