In 1946, the Russian scholar Glushge first proposed the concept of recycling of construction & demolition waste.

Since the 1980s, cities such as Melbourne and Sydney have started using recycled aggregate.

Germany has applied a lot of recycled concrete to road surface engineering, and in August 1998, the application guide for the usage of recycled aggregate in concrete was proposed.

The Nordic countries, such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and other countries in 1989, implement unified northern European environmental standards. The Belgian building research association (CSTC) has long been a focus of the construction waste recycling, and established the professional academic organization in the late 1980 s to promote the study of construction waste recycling.

The United States was one of the first developed countries to comprehensively deal with the construction & demolition waste. As early as 1915, the cost of asphalt in the road was studied and utilized. After nearly a century of practice, the United States formed a series of complete, comprehensive and effective management measures and policies, laws and regulations, making the construction waste regeneration utilization rate of close to 100%. At the same time, the United States also has 100% advanced technology of recycling old asphalt concrete waste.

Due to its small size and lack of resources, Japan attaches great importance to the recycling of resources. Japan is also the country with the most comprehensive legislation on environmental protection and resource recycling. Since the beginning of the last century, there have been laws concerning construction waste disposal, and the construction waste. It is regarded as a "building by-product" and cannot be discarded at will. After decades of efforts, the recycling of construction waste has achieved obvious results. In 1995, the recycling rate was over 65%, and reached 90% in 2000.

Developed countries are actively treating construction waste as a new industry. According to statistics, the renewable resources industry of developed countries in the end of the 20th century was $250 billion, which increased to $600 billion by the beginning of this century, and could reach us $1.8 trillion in 2010.

In the next 30 years, there will be "ten emerging technologies", with developed countries ranking second among the emerging technologies related to "waste disposal".