Excessive release of wastewater particularly rich in heavy metals from industrial activities is a critical environmental problem worldwide. Many metals, which are toxic and can cause various environmental problems Therefore, their removal from polluted solutions becomes one of the focuses of environmental remediation. The studies have shown the potential of food waste materials as low cost adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals and toxic elements from wastewater. Adsorption processes are being widely used by various researchers for the removal of heavy metals from waste streams and activated carbon has been frequently used as an adsorbent. Despite its extensive use in water and wastewater treatment industries, activated carbon remains an expensive material. In this study, the adsorption capacities of food waste materials along with agricultural and industrial waste by-products such as rice husk and fly ash were evaluated by comparing the adsorbents’ efficiency for the removal of elements from complex element solutions, maintaining homogeneous experimental conditions. The examined materials resulted to be extremely efficient for the adsorption of many elements from multi-element solutions as well as from a heavy metal wastewater. The objective of this research is to study the utilization possibilities of less expensive adsorbents for the elimination of heavy metals from wastewater.