Hazardous-Waste Management Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- 36.8% concentration at the top. The top 5 of 106 records in scope account for 39 filings — a leader at 12 followed by a fast drop to single digits, then a long tail.
- Solid-waste and ceramics claims dominate the mix. B09B (solid waste disposal, 27.4%) and C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories, 26.4%) are the two densest IPC subclasses, ahead of incineration and metal recovery.
- Filing momentum has cooled from its 2021 level. Filings ran from 5 in 2021 down to 2 in 2024, a -60% move over the only span that is not still filling in from publication lag.
Filing growth compares 2021 (5 records) with 2024 (2) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 106 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the hazardous-waste management patent record shows
Hazardous-waste management sits at the intersection of disposal and recovery: the search set combines terms for treating and tracking hazardous or toxic waste with terms for pulling material value back out of it — separation, recovery yield, secondary product, recycled feedstock. That pairing is deliberate. A growing share of the activity in this space is not pure containment or destruction, it is claims on how to turn a regulated waste stream into a usable output.
106 published records sit in scope across the 2015–2026 window, with the most recent year necessarily undercounted because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months. Filing activity peaked so far in 2025 at 11 records, but the only complete year-over-year comparison available — 2021 to 2024 — shows a marked pullback rather than acceleration.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 106-record set: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings started from zero in 2017, rose through the early 2020s, and peaked so far at 11 records in 2025. The 2021→2024 span is the last full comparison available and shows a -60% move (5 to 2), a genuine pullback rather than an artefact of publication lag — though 2025 and 2026 figures will still rise as later filings publish.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
B09B (solid waste disposal) and C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories) each cover roughly a quarter of the 106 records, with F23G (incineration), C22B (metal extraction) and C02F (water treatment) forming a second tier. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should each be read against the full 106-record base, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 106 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Hazardous-Waste Management Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about hazardous-waste management patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this set
AU2020103649A4 — IPIT: Hazardous & Non-Hazardous Waste Management
A system and method for a municipal solid waste process that screens and separates hazardous components from a mixed waste stream and routes them toward recovery and reuse rather than straight disposal, built on IoT-based process tracking.Filed as an Australian innovation patent; illustrates how screening/separation logic is being claimed alongside recovery routing rather than treated as a purely regulatory or tracking function.
View full filing| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5726884A | Integrated hazardous substance tracking and compliance | 416 |
| 2 | US5664112A | Integrated hazardous substances management unit | 249 |
| 3 | US4737356A | Immobilization of lead and cadmium in solid residues from the combustion of refuse using lime and phosphate | 127 |
| 4 | US5496392A | Method of recycling industrial waste | 108 |
| 5 | US5779877A | Recycling of CIS photovoltaic waste | 95 |
| 6 | US5858199A | Apparatus and method for electrocoriolysis the separation of ionic substances from liquids by electromigratio… | 70 |
| 7 | US4629509A | Immobilization of lead and cadmium in fly ash | 64 |
| 8 | US6021723A | Hazardous waste treatment method and apparatus | 44 |
| 9 | US20070251433A1 | Method and plant for processing waste | 41 |
| 10 | CN108380642A | 一种危险废物的熔融处置方法 | 25 |
Citation counts inside this corpus skew toward older filings — read them as a signal of influence on later art, not as a marker of which claims matter today.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three read-outs from the dataset that matter more for strategy than the raw counts on their own.
The leader board is short, then flattens fast
One assignee holds 12 records, the fifth-ranked holds 4, and the tenth-ranked holds only 2. The gap between first and fifth is steep; the gap from fifth to tenth is not. That shape says a handful of filers built early portfolios, but the field is not gated by one or two dominant players the way some adjacent recycling categories are.
Disposal engineering and materials-into-cement claims lead
Solid waste disposal (B09B) and ceramics/cement/refractories (C04B) are near-tied at the top of the technology mix, ahead of incineration (F23G, 17.0%), metal extraction (C22B, 15.1%) and water treatment (C02F, 14.2%). The C04B share is notable: it means a meaningful slice of hazardous-waste claims are really about stabilising or incorporating waste residues into construction materials.
Recent filing volume has pulled back, not accelerated
Filings fell from 5 in 2021 to 2 in 2024 — the only complete-year comparison the data supports. 2025's count of 11 looks like a spike but publication lag means both 2025 and 2026 will keep filling in; treat the 2021-2024 decline as the reliable signal and the recent uptick as provisional.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to hazardous-waste management patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity is thin
The ranking covers 100 companies counted in records — the full set the data endpoint returns, not a top-50 or top-100 cut. Recent-year momentum across the named assignees in the evidence is flat: several show zero filings in the latest year, consistent with the broader 2021-2024 pullback rather than any one firm losing ground specifically.
A single leader, then a fast drop-off
The top assignee holds 12 records against 4 at fifth place and 2 at tenth. That is a real lead in absolute terms but not a lock on the field — nobody in the ranked set is close to a majority share of the 106 records in scope.
China and the US lead receiving offices, India a close third
China (24) and the United States (22) take the largest share of filings by receiving office, with India (13), WIPO/PCT (10), Canada (8) and the EPO (8) behind them. That spread suggests filers are pursuing this technology across multiple jurisdictions rather than concentrating in one home market.
Co-filing is present but limited
Ten co-assignee pairings appear in the data, the strongest recurring three times or more. This points to some sustained joint-development relationships rather than one-off partnerships, but co-filing is not the norm across the field — most records carry a single assignee.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| RABINER YURIY | 0 | — |
| NOVAFRIT INT | 0 | — |
| Advanced Plasma Power Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Alternative Systems Inc. | 0 | — |
| STEIN ROLF | 0 | — |
| POGGI PAUL | 0 | — |
| CHAPMAN CHRIS | 0 | — |
| Wheelabrator Environmental Systems Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The published record only gets you so far — the next steps depend on what decision you are actually making.
Check freedom-to-operate against the densest classes
B09B and C04B together cover over half the records in scope on a per-class basis. Before drafting claims in either area, map the specific claim language of the ranked leaders' filings rather than relying on the class-level count alone.
Explore claim-level detail in EurekaWatch the 2025-2026 filings as they settle
The apparent spike to 11 records in 2025 is still provisional under publication lag. Re-check this trend in six to twelve months before treating it as a genuine reversal of the 2021-2024 pullback.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions on the hazardous-waste management patent landscape
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies counted across 106 records, with the top-ranked holder at 12 records and a fast drop-off to 4 at fifth place. The top 5 combined account for 39 records, or 36.8% of all records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 49.1%. That means the field has a visible leader but is not controlled by a small dominant group the way some more mature recycling categories are — most of the ranked list holds only one or two filings each.
The only complete year-over-year comparison in the data, 2021 to 2024, shows a -60% decline in filings, from 5 down to 2. A later spike to 11 records in 2025 looks like growth, but publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 counts are still filling in and should not yet be read as a reversal of the 2021-2024 pullback.
Solid waste disposal (IPC B09B) and ceramics, cement and refractories (C04B) are the two densest classes, each covering just over a quarter of the 106 records. Incineration (F23G, 17.0%), metal extraction and refining (C22B, 15.1%) and water/wastewater treatment (C02F, 14.2%) form a second tier. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages are each measured against the full 106-record base and are expected to sum to more than 100%.
Classes with lower record counts relative to the dense B09B/C04B cluster — including C01F (alkaline-earth, aluminium and rare-earth compounds, 7.5% of records) and A62D (chemical protection and detoxification, 13.2%) — carry comparatively thin claim density in this dataset. Sub-areas like rare-earth recovery from waste residues and detoxification process controls are worth checking specifically before assuming the space is occupied, since high density elsewhere does not tell you these branches are covered.
China leads receiving offices with 24 records, followed by the United States at 22 and India at 13. WIPO's PCT route accounts for 10, with Canada and the EPO each at 8. The spread across six receiving offices suggests filers in this field are pursuing protection in multiple jurisdictions rather than concentrating filings in a single home market.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.