The push to put lithium-ion batteries and microprocessors into personal protective equipment has been the biggest storyline in the safety industry over the last five years. We have smart hard hats with built-in radios, gas detectors with Bluetooth, and cooling vests with electronic pumps. Procurement departments love buying this gear because the data it provides looks great in corporate safety presentations. But a massive logistical nightmare is quietly brewing in the maintenance shops: what happens to this gear when the battery dies?
A standard hard hat has a lifespan of about five years. A high-quality pair of leather gloves lasts a year. But the lithium-ion batteries packed inside these new smart PPE devices usually only hold a decent charge for two to three years, and they degrade even faster if left in hot work trucks. When the battery in a smart helmet fails, the entire electronic module is useless. You now have a piece of safety gear that is a toxic e-waste hazard, and you cannot just throw it in the dumpster.
Current EPA regulations regarding the disposal of lithium-ion batteries are strict. If a battery is punctured or crushed in a garbage truck, it can cause a chemical fire that burns hot enough to melt steel. Yet, right now, there is almost no infrastructure set up by PPE manufacturers to take these dead smart modules back. Safety managers are finding themselves with drawers full of expensive, dead electronic sensors that they are legally responsible for disposing of properly, which requires hiring specialized hazardous waste contractors at a high cost.
Some of the more forward-thinking PPE brands are starting to realize that selling sealed, non-replaceable batteries in safety gear is a flawed business model. We are beginning to see the first generation of modular smart PPE, where the electronic "brain" of the device clicks into a slot on the outside of a standard hard hat or vest, and can be easily popped out and sent back to the manufacturer for recycling when it dies. Until this modular design becomes the industry standard, facilities need to be incredibly cautious about buying into sealed smart PPE. If you don't have a documented end-of-life disposal plan for the lithium batteries inside your safety gear, buying it is just buying a future environmental liability.
