The United States Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believe that treatment and recovery techniques should be given maximum priority when considering methods for managing the Nation's generated hazardous waste. A prohibition for the disposal of certain categories of hazardous wastes either directly onto or into the land without being treated to an accepted degree prior to such disposal practice has been promulgated. Wastes containing toxic metals and cyanide complexes have been selected as a group to be restricted. Due to the high generation rate associated with this category, a large capacity of waste treatment processing will be required. Existing and emerging treatment alternatives which are or have the potential to be employed for waste treatment of metal bearing wastes are presented in the paper.