Construction Waste Sorting Patents: Leaders & Filing Trends 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (235 records) with 2024 (194) — 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 2,647 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the construction waste sorting patent record shows
Construction and demolition waste sorting sits at the intersection of mechanical separation, materials recovery and, increasingly, sensing and detection. The 2,647 records captured here span sieving equipment, crushing and grinding lines, magnetic and wet separation, and the cement/ceramics recovery step that turns sorted aggregate back into usable material. No single assignee controls the field: the leading filer holds 18 records against a total of 2,647, and the ranked leaders as a group account for a modest share of overall activity.
Filing rose sharply through the back half of the 2010s, peaked in 2020, and has since eased — a pattern consistent with a technology area that filled its core mechanical claims early and is now filling in around sensing, detection and process-integration niches rather than reinventing the base equipment.
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Filing trends and technology composition
The trend and classification charts below use the full 2,647-record scope. Because a single record can carry more than one IPC subclass, the composition shares sum to more than 100% — that is expected and reflects overlapping claims rather than double counting of records.
A 2020 peak followed by a cooling filing rate
Annual filings ran 85 in 2017 up to a peak of 279 in 2020, then eased to 235 in 2021 and 194 in 2024 — a -17% move over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in under the roughly 18-month publication lag, so they should not be read as evidence the field is shrinking.
Sieving, crushing and magnetic separation carry the claim density
B07B (sieving & sorting) and B02C (crushing, grinding & pulverising) each cover close to a third of all 2,647 records, with B09B (solid waste disposal) and B03C (magnetic/electrostatic separation) forming a second tier. C04B (cement, ceramics & refractories) and B07C (postal & object sorting) sit further down, marking where sorted material re-enters the materials stream or where object-level detection logic is being claimed.
Shares are the percentage of the 2,647 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
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Method and system for detecting a construction waste sorting error (WO2025195835A1)
Computer-implemented method and system for detecting a construction waste sorting error on a construction site including at least one dumpster for receiving construction waste, the method comprising the step of obtaining image data representing a content of a first dumpster for receiving construction waste of a first type.Filed by Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and published 2025-09-25, this record sits on the detection-and-verification side of the field rather than the mechanical separation side that dominates the older, most-cited filings.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20160045841A1 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 861 |
| 2 | US20050080520A1 | Waste recovery and material handling process to replace the traditional trash transfer station and landfil by… | 539 |
| 3 | WO2014153570A2 | New and improved system for processing various chemicals and materials | 219 |
| 4 | US20060280669A1 | Waste conversion process | 207 |
| 5 | US4936465A | Method and apparatus for fast, reliable, and environmentally safe dispensing of fluids, gases and individual … | 184 |
| 6 | KR1020100121855A | Paving material and constructing method thereof | 111 |
| 7 | US5270000A | Apparatus and process for treating medical hazardous wastes | 96 |
| 8 | US20100191615A1 | Shipping and Storage Containers, Frames, and Carriages, for Franchise Systems for Rental, Lease, Sale, or Lic… | 91 |
| 9 | WO2005049530A2 | Waste conversion process | 90 |
| 10 | EP0302310B1 | Process and plant for the thermal disposal of waste | 67 |
Citation counts inside this corpus skew toward older US filings and are best read as a signal of historical influence, not of current technical importance.
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Three patterns in this dataset matter more for filing strategy than the raw counts alone.
A fragmented field, not a gatekeeper market
With the leader at 18 records and the top 5 combined covering only 3.3% of the 2,647 records in scope, no single assignee has built a blocking position. The ranked leaders list runs to 100 companies, and the drop from first to tenth place (18 to 12) is shallow rather than a cliff.
Mechanical separation still carries the most claims
B07B and B02C between them touch roughly a third of all records each, confirming that sieving, crushing and grinding remain the densest claim territory. Magnetic and wet separation (B03C, B03B) form a meaningful second layer, while cement/ceramics recovery (C04B) and object-sorting logic (B07C) are comparatively thin.
Post-peak cooling, read with the publication lag in mind
Filings peaked at 279 in 2020 and eased to 194 by 2024, a -17% move over that span. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and should not be treated as confirmation of a continuing decline.
Filing activity is concentrated in China and South Korea
China accounts for 1,542 of the tracked records and South Korea 531, together dwarfing the United States (79), India (78), Japan (63) and WIPO/PCT (59) receiving offices. Strategy built only around US or PCT filings will miss the bulk of where this technology is actually being claimed.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to resource recovery & urban mining: construction waste sorting patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is filing, monitoring, or licensing.
Map claim scope before filing in B07B or B02C
With close to a third of all 2,647 records sitting in sieving and crushing/grinding classes, a new mechanical-separation filing needs a tight prior-art map before drafting, not after.
Run a claim landscape in EurekaTrack the fragmented assignee base
No portfolio holder controls more than a small slice of the field, so competitive monitoring needs to follow the long tail of single- and few-filing entrants, not just the ranked leaders.
Set up assignee tracking in EurekaWatch the detection and sensing niche
Recent filings such as WO2025195835A1 move the claim focus from mechanical separation toward image-based error detection, a thinner-claimed branch worth watching for new entrants.
Explore adjacent filings in EurekaCommon questions on construction waste sorting patents
The tracked dataset contains 2,647 published records filed between 2015 and the 2026-07-31 data cut-off, covering both individual applications and their patent families. Filing activity rose through the late 2010s, peaked at 279 records in 2020, and has since eased to 194 by 2024, the last year that can be treated as a complete filing year given publication lag. This makes it a moderately active but not explosively growing field over the past several years.
The ranked leaders list covers 100 companies, with the top filer holding 18 records and the fifth-ranked assignee holding 17. Combined, the top 5 account for only 3.3% of the 2,647 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 5.8% — figures that point to a fragmented competitive base rather than a market controlled by a handful of large portfolios. Most activity comes from a long tail of companies and individual inventors filing in smaller numbers.
Sieving and sorting equipment (IPC class B07B) and crushing, grinding and pulverising equipment (B02C) are the two densest classes, each covering close to a third of the 2,647 records in scope. Solid waste disposal (B09B) and magnetic or electrostatic separation (B03C) form a substantial second tier, while cement and ceramics recovery (C04B) and object-level sorting logic (B07C) are comparatively thinner. Because records often carry multiple classes, these shares add up to more than 100% of the total.
China is by far the largest receiving office with 1,542 of the tracked records, followed by South Korea at 531. The United States, India, Japan and the WIPO/PCT route each account for well under 100 records apiece. Anyone doing freedom-to-operate or competitive-monitoring work in this field needs Chinese- and Korean-language coverage, not just US or PCT sources.
Filings peaked in 2020 at 279 records and declined to 194 by 2024, a -17% move over that three-year span. However, patent publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the 2025 and 2026 figures in any dataset are still incomplete and cannot yet be read as a genuine slowdown. The safest read is that the field passed a filing peak around 2020 and has since settled into a lower but still active rate through the last complete year of data.
WO2025195835A1, filed by Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and published 2025-09-25, covers a computer-implemented method and system for detecting a construction waste sorting error at a construction site using image data captured from a dumpster receiving a specific waste type. It sits on the detection and verification side of the field rather than the mechanical separation equipment that dominates the older, most-cited records. It is a useful marker of where newer filings are heading: toward sensing and error-detection logic layered on top of established sorting hardware.
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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.