Tetrasodium of N,N-bis(carboxymethyl) glutamic acid (GLDA), a novel readily biodegradable chelating ligand, was employed for the first time to remove heavy metals from industrial sludge generated from a local battery company. The extraction of cadmium, nickel, copper, and zinc from battery sludge with the presence of GLDA was studied under different experimental conditions such as contact times, pH values, as well as GLDA concentrations. Species distribution of metals in the sludge sample before and after extraction with GLDA was also analyzed. Current investigation showed that (i) GLDA was effective for Cd extraction from sludge samples under various conditions. (ii) About 89% cadmium, 82% nickel and 84% copper content could be effectively extracted at the molar ratio of GLDA:M(II) = 3:1 and at pH = 4, whereas the removal efficiency of zinc was quite low throughout the experiment. (iii) A variety of parameters, such as contact time, pH values, the concentration of chelating agent, stability constant, as well as species distribution of metals could affect the chelating properties of GLDA. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.