Long-term monitoring of plating effluent quality traditionally requires dense frequency sampling and analysis for multiple elements are needed. An effective and rapid approach was developed to monitor long-time plating effluent quality. The approach employs the placement of low-cost sorbents (chitosan, zeolite and granular activated carbon) in plating effluents followed by analysis of multiple-element X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Three plating effluents were selected in this study. Laboratory Freundlich isotherm sorption experiments were also conducted to describe the relationships of metal concentrations on sorbents and in effluents. Results indicated that chitosan was a suitable sorbent to estimate the Zn, Ni and Cr concentrations in plating effluents. Granular activated carbon was suitable for Cu concentration monitoring in effluents. The accumulation of metals onto sorbents with different sorption periods (1-3 days) was also investigated. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.