Electronic waste (e-waste) optimisation has emerged as an important research area at the intersection of waste management, environmental sustainability, engineering, operations research, materials recovery and digital technology. The present study examines the development of research on e-waste management optimisation through bibliometric analysis and a focused literature review. The research methodology uses Scopus as the sole database and applies the Boolean search string "electronic AND waste AND optimisation" to article titles, abstracts and keywords. The initial search produced 2,562 records. After applying the defined screening criteria for the 2006–2027 period, document type, language and source type, the final dataset contained 1,755 journal articles and reviews. The selection process was designed to maintain a consistent and analysable corpus while preserving the interdisciplinary nature of the field. The data analysis reports 1,755 documents across 624 sources, contributed by 5,889 authors, with an average of 5.08 co-authors per document. Approximately 26.55% of the documents involve authors from more than one country. Publication output accelerated sharply after 2023, increasing from 137 papers in 2023 to 178 in 2024, 300 in 2025 and 450 in 2026. Consequently, the two years 2025 and 2026 alone account for 750 documents, approximately 43% of the dataset. The bibliometric evidence shows rapid growth, expanding interdisciplinarity and increasing attention to battery recovery, sustainability assessment, reverse logistics and digital tools. The central issue for the field is consequently not simply whether an individual technology can recover a material efficiently, but whether the technology can be integrated into a practical system that is environmentally sound, economically viable, socially accessible and scalable.