The paper describes the possibilities how to diminish the risk of an escape of toxic substances from the waste storage and to prevent their presence in effluent water using the highly effective sorptive layer of treated lignite in the project of the waste storage. Lignite is capable to trap a broad spectrum of toxic and harmful substances present in industrial and communal wastes especially heavy metals. The high sorptive capability of treated lignite sorbent is based on the presence of humic acids. The humic acids represent the active component of the sorbent, which bonds heavy metal cations into stable complexes. The paper also gives the ideas of building new waste storages with the protective lignite layer.