This paper reviews the state of technology in recycling of coal fly ash, metal, glass, plastic and composite materials has been conducted. This is closely related to our daily life, as recent estimates indicate that more than 33 million tons of plastic are discarded each year, of which 6.5% are recycled and 7.7% are burned. Similar amounts of materials are discarded every year, including glass, metal and fly ash. Although much research has been performed on the recycling technologies for different common waste materials, how to apply them in constructional field and how they performed in application are quite new, with studies that are rapidly increasing in recently due to China decided not to receive any materials waste from the US, which means a high portion of discarded materials nowhere to be placed. In addition, just choosing to dispose of waste materials by landfills not only causes new environmental pollution but also wastes available resources. Therefore, from different aspects, such as the basic properties of materials, the technical means of recycling, the applications, properties, and prices after recycling, this paper comprehensively depict the circulation of these five materials
