Urbanears' recycled cheap earbuds beat AirPods for eco-cred as well as price

The use of recycled materials is a welcome and ever-growing trends in tech – Apple uses recycled aluminium for lots of its products, Microsoft makes a mouse from ocean plastic, there are laptops made with recycled plastic… and now Urbanears has debuted its new Boo and Boo Tips wireless earbuds, which are made from plastic that's up to 97% recycled.

The Urbanears Boo and Boo Tips are basically identical, but the basic Boo are designed for an outer-ear fit just like Apple AirPods (3rd Gen), which some people much prefer; Boo Tips are designed with a soft in-ear tip, which some other people prefer. I love this idea – that you can decide you like the basic specs and price of the earbuds, but you can choose which type of fit you want – I wish more of the best wireless earbuds gave you this option.

I also like the price, which is just £69/$79, making them competitive with some of the best cheap earbuds – but we know that Urbanears is good at delivering good bang for your buck, and we'll have a review of these soon to confirm that the Boo don't contain a nasty surprise.

The regular Boo are made from plastic that's 97% recycled (and the plastic is about 56% of the Boo's total size, once you remove the electric parts), while the Boo Tips' plastic is 91% recycled (and totals 57% of its total size).

They come in three colours – Charcoal Black, Almost Green and Slightly Blue – and have an extending stick bit, again a lot like AirPods.

They promise 4.5 hours of battery life in the buds per charge, which is not huge, but isn't out of line for cheaper buds. The case holds an extra 25.5 hours of charge, though, making 30 hours in total, which is pretty impressive.

Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity promises solid connectivity, and there are dual mics on each bud for clear calls. There are touch controls for basic controls on them, too.

They're IPX4 water resistant, which means they should be okay against sweat and lighter rain.

With a cool design, choice of fit, solid specs, some green cred and a great price, I think these could be a big winner for those in the market for budget-friendly buds.

Both the Boo and Boo Tips are released on May 12th 2022.