Abstract: A process for treating aqueous waste comprising a copper plating waste stream, a copper rinse stream containing organic carbon and solid particles, and a copper chemical mechanical planarization stream (CMP) containing solid particles is provided. This process includes electrowinning the copper plating waste stream to remove copper and create a blow down stream, filtering the rinse stream to remove solid particles, adding the blow down stream to the CMP stream, treating the blow down stream and the CMP stream with a flocculant or coagulant to form larger solid particles, removing the larger solid particles from the CMP stream and separating the resulting stream into a liquid containing copper, a concentrated regenerant, and a dilute regenerant, adding the concentrated regenerant to the waste stream before the electrowinning step, adding the dilute regenerant to the rinse stream before filtering to remove solid particles, and adding the liquid containing copper to the CMP stream during the treating step.

Abstract: A process for treating waste water containing copper and other particles from a chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process is provided. This process includes adjusting the pH of the waste water to between about 3 and 4, adding a coagulant or flocculating polymer to the waste water to generate larger particles, filtering the waste water through a filtration unit to produce a permeate and solids, feeding the permeate through a carbon bed to remove total organic carbon, and feeding the carbon bed treated permeate through an ion exchange column to remove copper from the permeate. This process may further involve washing sludge collected in a concentration tank with the treated stream exiting the ion exchange column. Still further, another aspect of the present invention is a system for performing the process described above.