Fly ash is generated as a solid residue in the power plant using crude oil and petroleum coke as fuels, and contains significant amount of vanadium. To utilize the industrial wastes, a better processing route is to convert environmentally hazardous wastes that have no or limited market value into products or intermediate products with added market value. In the present study a recipe-based concept is introduced and metal recovery from a selected waste mixture is investigated in the lab-scale experiments. Two waste ash residues of BOF steelmaking flue dust and petroleum fly ash are used as raw materials, and the residue carbon from the fly ash is used as reducing agent. The ferrovanadium with about 20 wt.% vanadium is obtained. This proves that a recipe-based waste processing can be a sustainable option for the future waste management. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.