The invention relates to a method for recycling copper, nickel, chromium, zinc and iron from plating sludge, belonging to the technical field of chemical engineering and metallurgy. The method comprises the following steps: acid leaching, vulcanizing for separation and enrichment, hot-pressure leaching, extracting for separation, hot-press oxidizing chromium, purifying chromium solution, extracting ferric chloride and the like. The method has obvious advantages of strong adaptability to different kinds of plating sludge, high utilization of metal resources, high value-added content of product,less process waste residue, thorough deintoxication and the like.