Expansive soils expand with water and contract with loss of water, and repeated expansion and contraction deformation makes expansive soils susceptible to geological disasters such as roadbed deformation, slope instability and landslide collapse, etc. The current generation of industrial solid waste continues to climb, and the size of its accumulation shows a significant growth trend, it is an important issue that constrains the economy, society and the environment. On the basis of the research results obtained by scholars at home and abroad in recent years on the engineering characteristics of expanded soils improved by industrial solid wastes, the expansion and contraction of expansive soil and improvement mechanism was summarized, a variety of industrial solid waste that can effectively improve the engineering characteristics of expansive soil was introduced. And according to the way of its generation is divided into coal and electricity, chemical industry, metallurgy, mining and other industrial categories, respectively, its nature, improvement mechanism, improvement effect and application status were elaborated in detail. In terms of improving the construction technology and methods of expansive soil, the treatment methods of expansive soil subgrade and slope was focused on. Finally, the authors look forward to the future research focus and direction.