In this study, honeycomb cinders were employed to remove phosphate and Chemical Oxygen Demand (CODcr) simultaneously for landfill leachate treatment. Operating conditions of honeycomb cinders pretreatment, pH, temperature, honeycomb cinders dosage, reaction time, and settling time, were evaluated and optimized. The results revealed that the removal efficiencies of both phosphate and CODcr could be increased up to 99.9% and 66.7% under the optimal conditions, respectively. Moreover, the structures of raw/modified honeycomb cinders and resulting precipitates were detected by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectrometers (EDS) analysis and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The results suggested that the adsorption method using honeycomb cinders might be an effective strategy as a pretreatment technology for landfill leachate treatment. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.