In this study, the use of the strongly basic polystyrene and polyacrylate anion exchangers to remove heavy metal ions Cu(II), Zn(II), Co(II) and Pb(II) in the presence of a new generation chelating agent from wastewaters was evaluated. The increase of the sorption capacity of heavy metal ions in the presence of N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)glutamic acid (GLDA) could be achieved after optimalization of phase contact time (1–180 min), shaking speed (140–180 rpm), concentration (7.5 × 10 −4–2.5 × 10 −2 mol/L), resin dosage (0.1–0.7 g), pH (2–12), temperature (293–333 K) and the presence of interfering ions (Ca(II), Mg(II), Cl −, SO 4 2−, and NO 3 −). The experimental data were analysed using the sorption kinetic models viz., the Lagergren, Ho and McKay, Elovich, Weber and Morris. In the M(II)–GLDA = 1:1 system, the heavy metal ion sorption reached up to 56.67 mg/g for Cu(II) and 38.39 mg/g for Zn(II) on Amberlite IRA 402 and up to 51.10 mg/g for Cu(II) and 43.09 mg/g for Zn(II) on Amberlite IRA 458. The equilibrium sorption studies of Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes with GLDA have been described by the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models.