The waste management and practice of reuse of cooling lubricant containing grinding swarf has become a problem of rising importance due to introduction of the law of recycling economics in October 1996. Grinding swarf is a significant set of arising residual material in the metal working industry (about 250.000 t/a). The recycling of this material on the highest extent was object of researches carried out by a working group at the IWT together with the IFAM, accompanied by the Federal Environmental Agency. Target was the preparation of the solid fraction of grinding swarf for reuse as basic material in processes for powder metallurgy and thermal spraying. The produced materials were investigated for their principle applicability to technological problems. Coatings produced from grinding swarf by atmospheric plasma spraying exhibit high hardness and an increased wear resistance. Remaining difficulties are the supply with base materials of constant quality and the resulting instabilities in the coating process and quality of the coatings. Paper text in German.