PCB Recycling Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- 41.4% concentration. The top 5 of 42 ranked assignees hold 29 of the 70 records in scope — a leader group, then a long tail.
- Filing peaked in 2021, not now. Filings hit 9 in 2021 and fell to 5 by 2024, a 44% drop over that span; 2025-26 figures are still filling in.
- Separation, not board design, dominates. B09B solid waste disposal and C22B metal extraction cover 48.6% and 40.0% of records — recovery chemistry outweighs board-level claims.
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (5) — 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 70 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks patent families addressing printed circuit board recycling — the mechanical liberation, electrostatic separation and metal recovery steps applied to waste circuit boards and other electronic scrap. The search string pairs recycling and e-waste terminology with specific process signals: liberation of metal, electrostatic separation, dust emission, brominated flame retardant handling, metal concentrate grade and throughput per line. That combination filters out general e-waste collection or logistics patents and keeps the focus on the physical and chemical separation processes that actually recover value from a shredded board.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off, spanning 70 published records across six receiving offices. Because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, the final one to two years of the trend are undercounted and should be read as provisional rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 70 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claims.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 9 in 2021, then declined to 5 by 2024 — a 44% drop across that three-year span. The most recent years in the chart are structurally incomplete because of publication lag, so read the 2025-26 tail as a floor, not a ceiling.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
B09B (solid waste disposal) and C22B (metal extraction and refining) each cover close to half or more of the 70 records, confirming that most claims sit on end-of-line separation and metal recovery rather than on board design. B03C electrostatic separation and H05K circuit assembly each account for 25.7%, with crushing, plastics recovery and filtration forming a thinner tail. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum to well over 100% and should not be added together.
Shares are the percentage of the 70 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Printed Circuit Board Recycling with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about printed circuit board recycling and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
Novel pre-treatment process for liberation of metals from waste printed circuit boards using organic solution
The method recovers valuable metals from waste printed circuit boards by first separating laminated plastic layers using an organic solvent, then separating the freed plastic components from metal components with an electrostatic separation process. The organic-solvent pre-treatment step is presented as a simpler alternative to purely mechanical liberation ahead of electrostatic sorting.Filed by Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), 2010-03-25.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5683040A | Method for recycling waste from printed circuit board assemblies from electrical and electronic devices | 94 |
| 2 | CN102191383A | 一种处理废旧印刷电路板的方法 | 37 |
| 3 | CN1313208C | 废旧印刷电路板的破碎及高压静电分离方法 | 33 |
| 4 | CN1654124A | 废旧印刷电路板的破碎及高压静电分离方法 | 30 |
| 5 | CN1654129A | 废旧印刷电路板破碎颗粒的高压静电分离装置及分离方法 | 29 |
| 6 | CN104532005A | 一种废弃印刷电路板资源化综合利用的方法 | 28 |
| 7 | CN102676822A | 一种免焚烧无氰化处理废旧印刷电路板的方法 | 24 |
| 8 | US20100071507A1 | Novel pre-treatment process for liberation of metals from waste printed circuit boards using organic solution | 17 |
| 9 | CN102228868A | 废旧印刷电路板粉体的超声波高压静电分离方法及其系统 | 15 |
| 10 | US20130326850A1 | Burning-free and non-cyanide method for recycling waste printed circuit board | 14 |
Ranked by citation count within this searched corpus. Older records accumulate more citations by nature of being available longer, so treat this as a signal of influence on the field rather than of current commercial relevance.
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 filing strategy
Three read-outs from the concentration, timing and technology-mix figures above.
A leader group, then a long tail
The top 5 of 42 ranked assignees account for 29 of the 70 records in scope, and the top 10 reach 68.6%. That leaves a substantial share of filers with only one or two records each, typical of a field still being staked out rather than one owned by a handful of incumbents.
Peak activity has passed, provisionally
Filing activity peaked at 9 in 2021 and had fallen to 5 by 2024, a 44% decline over that span. 2024 is the last year that can be treated as complete; 2025 and 2026 figures will keep rising as publications catch up, so this is a real but partial cooling rather than confirmation of a dead field.
Recovery process claims outnumber board claims
Solid waste disposal (B09B) and metal extraction (C22B) together dominate the class distribution, while printed circuit assembly (H05K) sits at 25.7%. Most of the claim space being built is around what happens to the board after it is scrapped, not how the board itself is designed for easier recycling.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to printed circuit board recycling, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the field is still open
The ranking below covers all 42 assignees the data endpoint returns for this search — not a top-50 or top-100 cut. Momentum in the latest year is flat across the assignees checked, consistent with the broader publication-lag effect rather than an actual pullback.
A single leader, modest lead
The top-ranked assignee holds 7 of the 70 records, with fifth place at 5 and tenth place at 3 — a gentle taper rather than a sharp cliff. No single filer dominates the field outright.
Filing is spread across six offices
China leads with 23 filings, followed by the United States (11), WIPO/PCT (9), India (7), Canada (6) and the EPO (6). That spread suggests the technology is being protected across multiple regional markets rather than concentrated in one jurisdiction.
Academic co-filing is the strongest link
The strongest co-assignee pair in the dataset is a university partnership filing together 5 times; the remaining pairs each appear once. Collaboration is present but limited to a small number of academic-institutional links rather than an industry-wide pattern.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| GEM Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) | 0 | — |
| GREENOVEL INC | 0 | — |
| University of Aveiro | 0 | — |
| University of Porto | 0 | — |
| Beijing University of Technology | 0 | — |
| Owl Electronics Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Shanghai Jiao Tong University | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The concentration and technology-mix figures above are a starting point for two kinds of decisions: where to file next, and whose claims to watch.
Map claim scope against the leader group
With the top 5 of 42 assignees holding 41.4% of records, a freedom-to-operate check against that group's specific claim language is a reasonable first step before drafting in the core separation or metal-recovery classes.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaStress-test the white space
Thinner classes such as B01D filtration and board-level design for liberation show fewer records relative to B09B and C22B. That gap is worth validating against non-patent literature before assuming it is genuinely open.
Run a white space check in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
Across the 42 ranked assignees in this dataset, the leading filer holds 7 of the 70 records in scope, with the fifth-placed assignee at 5 and the tenth at 3. That is a gradual taper rather than one company dominating the field, and the top 5 combined account for 41.4% of all records. Readers should treat this as a snapshot of published families, not a measure of commercial market share.
Filing activity peaked at 9 records in 2021 and had declined to 5 by 2024, a 44% drop over that three-year span. Because patent publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts are still incomplete and will rise as more applications publish. The honest read is a real cooling through 2021-2024, not a field that has stopped moving.
Solid waste disposal processes (IPC class B09B) appear in 48.6% of the 70 records, and metal extraction and refining (C22B) in 40.0%, making these the two largest claim areas. Electrostatic and magnetic separation (B03C) and printed circuit assembly (H05K) each cover 25.7% of records. This distribution shows that most patent activity targets what happens to a board after it is shredded — separating and recovering materials — rather than how the board is designed.
Filtration-based separation (B01D) appears in only 7.1% of the 70 records, and board-level design changes intended to ease later liberation are thinly represented relative to the dominant separation and metal-recovery classes. Brominated flame retardant destruction and dust emission control during shredding also sit outside the core classes despite appearing in the search criteria. These pockets are worth a deeper freedom-to-operate check rather than being assumed clear, since low patent density can also reflect low commercial activity.
China leads with 23 filings by receiving office, followed by the United States at 11 and the WIPO/PCT route at 9. India, Canada and the EPO each show single-digit counts in the 6-7 range. This spread indicates that companies working in this space are protecting the technology across several major markets rather than filing in one jurisdiction alone.
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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.