A wide variety of chelating organic ion exchange resins and inorganic ion exchangers were tested for the removal of nickel and zinc from waste effluents from metal plating plants. Best performances were found to be exhibited by three chelating resins, sodium titanate and an active carbon impregnated with oxine. For most of these exchangers, the batch separation percentages were 99.9% or higher at pH above 5. Column experiments showed that the most effective exchanger for nickel was an inorganic ion exchanger, sodium titanate, and for zinc an aminophosphonate resin, Duolite ES 467.