Landfill Mining Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Filing growth compares 2021 (13 records) with 2024 (22) — 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 398 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Landfill mining sits at the intersection of mechanical excavation and biological reclamation: patents in this set range from apparatus for excavating and separating buried waste to microbial processes that convert landfill gas and organic fractions into useful compounds. The search string captures 398 records published between 2015 and mid-2026 that explicitly claim landfill mining, landfill resource recovery, landfill waste excavation, or the combined concept of landfill plus mining. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years in this dataset are undercounted and should not be read as a slowdown.
The filing base spans mechanical separation equipment, geotechnical excavation methods, soil and contaminated-land reclamation, and a substantial cluster of biological and fermentation-based routes for converting landfill-derived carbon into organic products. That mix of mechanical and biological IPC classes is unusual for a waste-management category and shapes where the claim density actually sits.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 398-record set: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing activity, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 24 in 2017 to a peak of 27 in 2018, then moved in a band before climbing 69% from 13 in 2021 to 22 in 2024 — the last year the dataset treats as complete. 2025 and 2026 figures, including the 5 recorded so far in 2026, will rise as later publications catch up.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
B09B (solid waste disposal) leads at 26.1% of the 398 records, with C04B (ceramics, cement & refractories) and the biological cluster — C12P fermentation, C12N microorganisms, C12M bioreactors — each in the 11-15% range. E02D (foundations & earth drilling) and B09C (soil & contaminated land reclamation) round out the mechanical and remediation side at 13.1% and 8.8% respectively. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add to more than 100% and should be read against the 398-record total, not against each other.
Shares are the percentage of the 398 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Resource Recovery & Urban Mining: Landfill Mining Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about resource recovery & urban mining: landfill mining patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative claim
US5564862A — Method of improved landfill mining
The present invention includes a method of landfill mining which comprises the following steps: (1) converting the landfill to aerobic production by injection of moisture and air, and a raw material such as sewage sludge (if required), and venting of depleted air and moisture, thereby increasing the rate of waste decomposition; (2) excavating the landfill to remove material; (3) separating the removed material to substantially isolate at least one segregated material from the residual material; (4) disposing of at least one segregated material; and (5) returning the residual material to the landfill.Filed by Michael Markels, Jr., granted 1996-10-15 — one of the earliest process patents to combine aerobic acceleration with excavation and material separation in a single claimed method.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20100120104A1 | Biological and chemical process utilizing chemoautotrophic microorganisms for the chemosythetic fixation of c… | 256 |
| 2 | US5190226A | Apparatus and method for separation, recovery, and recycling municipal solid waste and the like | 154 |
| 3 | WO2017165244A1 | Microorganisms and artificial ecosystems for the production of protein, food, and useful co-products from c1 … | 116 |
| 4 | US20060144700A1 | Apparatus and process for mediated electrochemical oxidation of materials | 104 |
| 5 | WO2011139804A2 | Use of oxyhydrogen microorganisms for non-photosynthetic carbon capture and conversion of inorganic and/or c1… | 97 |
| 6 | CA2629555A1 | Related/overlapping innovations in health/energy/transport/farming and infrastructure | 88 |
| 7 | US8337613B2 | Slagging coal combustor for cementitious slag production, metal oxide reduction, shale gas and oil recovery, … | 87 |
| 8 | WO2018144965A1 | Microbial conversion of co 2 and other c1 substrates to vegan nutrients, fertilizers, biostimulants, and syst… | 77 |
| 9 | US20190390158A1 | Microbial Conversion of CO2 and Other C1 Substrates to Vegan Nutrients, Fertilizers, Biostimulants, and Syste… | 69 |
| 10 | WO2011056183A1 | Biological and chemical process utilizing chemoautotrophic microorganisms for the chemosynthetic fixation of … | 68 |
Ranked by citation count within this searched corpus; older records accumulate citations simply by being available longer, so treat this as a signal of influence rather than current relevance.
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Four read-throughs of the concentration, growth and technology-mix figures above, translated into where to watch and where claim space may still be open.
Leadership is real but not dominant
The leading assignee alone accounts for 61 records, well ahead of the fifth-place filer at 8, so the top of the ranking is genuinely concentrated. Even so, the top 5 combined hold just 27.9% of all 398 records in scope, and the top 10 only reach 36.7% — meaning almost two-thirds of the field is held by a long tail of smaller or single-filing entrants.
Activity is building, not fading
Filings rose from 13 in 2021 to 22 in 2024, a 69% increase over that span and the clearest complete-year trend the data supports. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look lower only because publication has not caught up yet — reading them as a decline would be a misinterpretation of the lag.
Mechanical claims lead, biological claims follow close behind
B09B (solid waste disposal) is the single densest class at 26.1% of 398 records, but the three biological subclasses — C12P, C12N and C12M — each sit between 11.3% and 14.8%, and collectively point to a well-developed line of microbial and fermentation-based conversion claims running alongside the mechanical excavation art.
The US and China anchor filing activity, PCT signals cross-border intent
The United States receives the most filings at 93, followed by China at 58 and WIPO/PCT filings at 50 — a sizeable PCT share suggesting a meaningful share of applicants are pursuing multi-jurisdiction protection rather than filing domestically only.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to resource recovery & urban mining: landfill mining patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Where to take this analysis
The figures above describe the field as it stands; the next step is testing a specific claim, applicant, or design-around against the full record set.
Check freedom-to-operate against the leading filers
Concentration at the top 5 (27.9% of 398 records) means a small number of assignees hold outsized claim coverage in mechanical separation and excavation methods. Before filing, run a clearance check against their granted claims specifically, not just the category as a whole.
Run a clearance search in EurekaMap the biological-route claim space in detail
The C12P, C12N and C12M cluster together suggests fermentation and bioreactor conversion of landfill-derived carbon is a live, multi-party area rather than the domain of one filer. A subclass-level claim chart would show which conversion pathways are already crowded.
Build a claim chart in EurekaTrack the 2025-2026 filing cohort as it publishes
Because publication lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures in this dataset will keep rising. Set a monitoring alert to catch new entrants and continuation filings as they come through rather than relying on a single snapshot.
Set up monitoring in EurekaCommon questions on landfill mining patents
This dataset captures 398 records published between 2015 and mid-2026 that explicitly claim landfill mining, landfill resource recovery, or related excavation and processing concepts. Filing activity rose from 13 records in 2021 to 22 in 2024, a 69% increase, which is the clearest complete-year growth signal in the data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 appear lower only because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so recent years will fill in as more applications publish; they should not be read as the field slowing down.
The ranking covers 100 companies and individuals, counted by patent family, with the leading assignee holding 61 records against 8 for the fifth-ranked filer — a clear gap at the very top. Even so, the top 5 filers combined hold only 27.9% of all 398 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 36.7%, which means the majority of filings come from a long tail of smaller or single-filing entrants rather than a handful of dominant players. Anyone assessing competitive risk should look at both the concentrated leaders and that long tail, since freedom-to-operate risk is not confined to the top names.
Solid waste disposal methods and equipment (IPC class B09B) are the single densest category, appearing in 26.1% of the 398 records in scope. Close behind are ceramics and cement applications (C04B, 15.3%) and a cluster of biological routes — fermentation (C12P, 14.8%), microorganisms and genetic engineering (C12N, 14.3%), and bioreactors (C12M, 11.3%) — alongside water treatment (C02F, 14.1%) and earth drilling and foundations (E02D, 13.1%). Because a single patent can carry several IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% and should each be read against the 398-record total rather than against one another.
US5564862A, granted to Michael Markels, Jr. in 1996, claims a method that converts a landfill to aerobic decomposition through moisture and air injection, then excavates the material, separates it to isolate specific segregated fractions, disposes of at least one fraction, and returns the residual material to the landfill. It is a process patent combining biological acceleration with mechanical excavation and separation into a single claimed sequence, which makes it a useful reference point for anyone designing a similar multi-step reclamation method. Because it is an early filing in this space, checking its claim scope and prosecution history is a reasonable first step before committing to a similar process architecture.
The technology composition shows mechanical excavation and biological conversion routes are both well populated, but classes like B09C (soil and contaminated land reclamation, 8.8% of records) and cross-disciplinary combinations of drilling equipment (E02D) with biological conversion (C12M/C12N/C12P) show comparatively lighter overlap. Combined claims spanning remediation-grade soil treatment together with in-situ biological acceleration appear less saturated than either technology claimed alone. A gap analysis against the specific claim language in the leading filers' patents, rather than the category totals alone, would confirm where a genuinely open claim could be drafted.
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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.