Recycling plants can be classified as three types ; mobile, semi-mobile and fixed plants.

In the mobile plant the waste material is crushed and screened with ferrous impurities extracted by magnetic separation method. The crusher is usually transported to operation site where selected suitable non-contaminated concrete or masonry waste can be processed to meet specified standards. In the case of the semi mobile plant, contaminated components are manually separated by hand with the final product also undergoing screening with the extraction of ferrous impurities achieved by the magnetic method. It is believed that the end product from the semi mobile plant has higher quality than that of the mobile plant. Whereas fixed plants are specially designed to execute the crushing, screening and purification processes, resulting with the products having the highest quality. However, certain factors are considered when setting up a fixed recycling plant namely: site and plant location, road and plant accessibility, land space availability, availability of weigh stage and availability storage space among other things.

A huge portion of solid waste generated globally, constitutes of CDW composed of concrete and masonry materials disposed in landfills which ideally can be recycled and reused in the building industry in forms of blocks and slabs among other structural elements with less complexity. The conversion of this waste to wealth in various forms promotes sustainable beneficial outcomes by saving land used as disposal sites and easing the pressures on scarce natural resources while creating job opportunities for locals as well as creating avenues for small scale businesses to thrive.

Recycled CDW as coarse or fine aggregates can be utilized as bulk and backfill materials, sub base material in road and pavement construction, landfill liners, canal lining, fills in land reclamation and drainage projects as well as in the production of new concrete with less structural complexities. Demolition activities result in masonry and brick waste which when proper recycled are mixed with cement, mortar or lime to activate its properties and used as a new material. They are often used as building materials or in the construction of road and drainage layers or in mechanical soil stabilization as a result of its inert nature. In the case of metal waste, it is often generated from demolition activities and collected in forms of pipes, light sheets, wires and metal fittings, reinforcement bars in the concrete etc., which are easily separated by magnetic process and melted. Materials made of aluminium are easily recovered without contamination and are sold to recyclers. In cases where wood is recovered in good state as frames, windows, doors, beams, roofing members, partitions etc., they are easily cleaned up and reused. High quality waste wood members have high market value for reuse in flooring and furniture while lower quality wood waste can be recycled or in very common cases, burnt for energy recovery.