The aim of this study was to evaluate foundry waste used for various applications in terms of heavy metals quantity of fractions of their binding. The novelty of these studies is the use of speciation procedures to assess the fraction of heavy metals in foundry waste. The two most popular speciation procedures, the Tessier method and the SM&T, and also the TCLP single extraction procedure were used to evaluate the use of foundry waste in agritechnique, road engineering and construction in this research. Additionally, local soils were analyzed and compared to landfill foundry waste (LFW). It was found that LFW may have a negative impact on the natural environment when used for agrotechnological applications due to the increased concentration of mobile and bioavailable fractions (mean 9–18%) of metals. Foundry dusts were characterized by a low percentage of mobile and bioavailable (mean 2–6%) forms, although this does not include electric arc fournance dust (EAFD) (mean 17%). The metal content in TCLP extracts was low in all foundry waste samples and allowed the use of the analyzed wastes in construction and road construction. The usefulness of both speciation procedures for the assessment of the leaching of heavy metal forms from foundry waste was confirmed. However, the SM&T procedure was more effective in leaching mobile and bioavailable forms of heavy metals in foundry waste and soil samples.

The article presents the directions of foundry waste management, mainly used for spent foundry sands (SFS) and dust after the reclamation of this waste. An important aspect of environmental protection in foundry production is the reduction of the amount of generated waste as a result of SFS regeneration. The advantage is the reuse of waste, which reduces the costs of raw materials purchase and environmental fees for landfilling. Non -recycled spent foundry sands can be used in other industries. SFS is most often used in road and construction industries as well as inert material in closed mines (Smoluchowska and Zgut 2005; Bany-Kowalska 2006). An interesting direction of using SFS is its application in gardening and agriculture. The article presents the advantages and disadvantages of such use. It was found that spent foundry sands can be useful for the production of soil mixtures for many agricultural and horticultural applications. Due to the possibility of environmental pollution with heavy metals and organic compounds, such an application is recommended for the so-called green sands, i.e. SFS with mineral binders. In addition, an innovative solution for the energy use of dusts after spent foundry sands reclamation with organic binders has been discussed and proposed by some researchers. It was shown that dust from reclaimed SFS with organic binders can be used as an alternative fuel and raw material in cement kilns, due to the high percentage of organic substances which determine their calorific value and silica.