Abstract: A dental waste collection method and system in which a slurry of water and olid waste particles, including amalgam containing mercury and soluble and suspended mercury and other heavy metals is fed into a settling tank in which particles of insoluble solid waste material settle by gravity for later extraction, disposal, or reclamation. The liquid wastes and suspended metal particulates also can be co-precipitated to remove small size insoluble particles entrained in the slurry and soluble mercury and other metals. The supernatant remaining in the tank is removed and passed through a treatment stage including at least one filter and, if needed ion exchange media, and is in a form clarified of the mercury such as to be able to be conveyed into a public sewer system.