In this study, it was attempted to identify organic compounds in an industrial wastewater originating from processing of oil/water mixtures and spent oils. For this purpose, samples of oil reclaiming wastewater were extracted with dichloromethane. By gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), organic wastewater constituents had been detected and tentatively identified or at least characterized which belonged to the following groups: hydrocarbons, alcohols, ethers, phenols, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, nitrogen‐containing heterocycles, and a few others. But the detected organics represented only about 2 % of TOC, which was about 5000 mg/1. Alcohols/ethers (mainly surfactants containing several ethoxy groups) were predominant among the gas chromatographically detectable substances. In all investigated samples l‐(2‐butoxyethoxy)‐ethanol, 2‐[2‐(2‐butoxyethoxy)‐ethoxy]‐ethanol, pentaoxanonadecanol ( or a homologue ) and 2‐phenoxyethanol were the main representatives of the identified organics. Alkanes were very low in samples treated by precipitation and could also be removed by short time contact with activated sludge Other groups of organics (except alcohols/ethers and N‐heterocycles) were reduced by biosorption too. In terms of TOC about 6 % of the organics were removed by biosorption.