Carbon waste generated from fertiliser plant has been used for adsorption studies for the removal of chromium, zinc and nickel and COD from industrial effluent from phenol formaldehyde plant, polyester plant, sugar plant. Removal to the extent of 91.40, 86.8, 93.8 percent was achieved at the initial concentration of 10 mg/1 for Cr(VI), Ni(TI) and Zn(II) respectively using carbon waste as adsorbent Removal of these metals were found to be in order of Zn(II) > Cr(VI) > Ni(II). In a multi cationic solution containing these three metals, Cr(VI) adsorbed preferentially over Ni(II) and Zn(II). COD removal of 67.51%, and 86.4 % was obtained in case of polyester and sugar plant effluent respectively. In case of phenol formaldehyde resin COD removal to the extent of 65.00 % was obtained for the initial COD concentration of 1000mg/l.