Abstract: Taking Nanjing as an example, the economic feasibility of recycled brick was studied by comparing the brick made from coal gangue, fly ash and construction and demolition debris. Only the revenue of the three brick-making methods during the operation period was considered, and the 3.0×105 t coal gangue, fly ash and construction and demolition debris were taken as an example. The operating costs were 48.00, 38.17 and 23.00 million, respectively, and the direct economic benefits calculated by the ratio of income to operating costs were 1.13, 1.18 and 1.49, which were greater than 1.00. It was showed that the benefits were greater than the costs, and the advantages of recycled bricks were obvious. Compared with gangue and fly ash, government subsidies accounted for 26.32% of the revenue from the recycled bricks made from construction and demolition debris, which could effectively guarantee the survival of construction and demolition debris recycling enterprises.The main reason for restricting recycled brick enterprises was that the low recovery rate of construction waste leaded to less recycled brick sources. And recycled bricks lacked competitive advantages with similar products in terms of social recognition, resulted in a lack of market competitiveness. Based on this, it was suggested that the government departments could improve the social recognition, product quality and competitiveness of recycled bricks by encouraging the use of recycled materials in new projects, issuing franchise operations and allocating special scientific research funds.

Key words: construction waste, recycling, recycled brick, economic benefits