The pollution from agricultural production, mining and chemical industry, leads to increased quantity of toxic and carcinogenic heavy metals in natural waters. Therefore, efforts are being made for development of cost-effective environmentally friendly methods of their removal, such as adsorption and ion exchange using low-cost sorbents. In this paper, the possibility of using waste and residues from local plants for food production and processing - olive pits, olive pomace pellets and residues of sea urchin, as biosorbents for the removal of lead and zinc from aqueous solutions was investigated. The sorption properties of olive pits after oil recovery by cold extraction with n-hexane and ethanol were also investigated. All tested biosorbents show a higher sorption capacity towards zinc than lead over time. The amounts of sorbed lead and zinc oscillate over time, most likely due to simultaneous sorption/desorption processes, which are a consequence of the structure and composition of each biosorbent as well as the affinity of lead and zinc for biosorbents. The sorption/desorption effect is more pronounced for zinc. Lead is best sorbed on KM-H olive pits (24.3%) after 24 h of contact and worst on olive pomace pellets with a maximum efficiency of only 13.3%. Zinc is best sorbed on the residues of the sea urchin with an efficiency of 42.4 - 51.5%, which was the highest after 7 h of contact. On other biosorbents zinc was sorbed with an efficiency of ≥ 30%, achieved in the first 4 h of contact. The knowledge that some biosorbents have better sorption efficiency in a shorter contact time can contribute to determining the most optimal contact time, with the aim of achieving the best lead and zinc removal and thus faster and more cost-effective water treatment. Extraction of oil from olive pits by the cold process had a negligible effect on the sorption properties, and the pits could be used for sorption of lead and zinc even after the oil recovery. Based on the obtained results, the use of waste and residues from food production and processing as biosorbents could ensure environmentally and economically acceptable treatment of waters contaminated with heavy metals. In addition, the use of waste for this purpose would reduce its original quantity, which could end up unused in a landfill.