Food waste residue is an intractable problem worldwide. The current study discussed the potential of adsorbents prepared from food waste residue (AFWR) for heavy metal removal from wastewater. The microstructure of AFWR was characterized, and kinetic studies on the simultaneous adsorption of Pb 2+ , Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Cd 2+ ions from aqueous solutions by AFWR were carried out. It was found that the adsorption of all heavy metals followed a pseudo-second-order kinetics, so that there was a competitive adsorption for Pb 2+ , Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Cd 2+ . According to the experimental results, the adsorption in competition beads with the heavy metals presented an order of Cu 2+ > Pb 2+ > Zn 2+ > Cd 2+ .