Right AirPods not working

Okay, so Ive had my AirPods for 4 years now. And the issue I started having is that after 30 minutes or so, the right side of my AirPods complete disconnects from my iPhone and says it’s 1%, just after 30 minutes of using it. While the left side is completely fine at 95 % or more. I’ve always used both AirPods (never just the ride side, because that’s just weird). Also, when I put the right AirPods back in the case to charge for 5 minutes, I could use the right AirPods for another 30 minutes or if I’m lucky even longer.

So I don’t know if this is really a battery issue, because I have been to the Genius Bar and they said this is an issue with battery life and that I need to replace the right side or completely buy a new one and that they don’t do repairs on airpods (which I think they should because I would gladly pay for the service). Just don’t want to throw out my old and buy a brand new AirPods because that’s just wasteful. And I don’t want to buy a new one because that means spending more money just to fix the issue on the right airpod.

any tips or recommendations on what else I can do? Opinions welcome. Thanks