The advent of copper in integrated circuits in semiconductor manufacturing in the late 1990s led to the need for an efficient, environmentally compliant way to remove copper from wastewater generated from copper mechanical planarization/polishing (CuCMP) processes. CuCMP chemistry involves oxide slurry solids, chelators and other components that complicate traditional precipitation wastewater treatment methods that create a waste solid (i.e., sludge) considered to be hazardous waste by federal and state environmental regulations.