An examination of the effectiveness of the cleaning of model sewage water by means of chars obtained from a waste ion exchange resin and its activation products has been carried out, Water contaminated with diesel oil, toluene, phenol. p-chlorophenol, Congo red. as well as metal ions (Cu2+, Pb2+, Ni2+ and Cd2+) was used as model sewage. It is shown that active carbons obtained from waste ion exchange resin give excellent results in removing small-sized molecules such as toluene or diesel oil. They can also be used for removing copper ions and lead ions. These sorbents are not very active in cleaning water contaminated with phenol, p-chlorophenol, Congo red, nickel ions or cadmium ions. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.