The problem of environmental pollution with heavy metals is relevant for the Republic of Belarus. One of the ways to remove heavy metals from industrial wastewater is to treat them with sorbents. Sorbents based on peat and brown coal are effective and inexpensive, but their use leads to secondary contamination of the treated environment with water-soluble organic compounds. It is shown that the developed sorption materials based on peat and brown coal residues sorb heavy metal ions (copper, nickel, zinc) and do not pollute the treated medium with water-soluble organic compounds (the COС value of sorption materials does not exceed 5 mg O2/dm3). It was found that the exchange capacity of sorption materials in an acidic medium (pH 2.0) is higher than that of humic acids and is in the range of 0.17–1.38 mmol/g. The use of ultrasonic treatment to increase the exchange capacity of sorption materials makes it possible to
increase it by 2.3–3.0 times for copper ions and 2.2 times for zinc ions, which is due to the destruction of large aggregates.
The obtained results formed the basis for the development of a technology for obtaining sorption materials for wastewater treatment from heavy metal ions.