A process for recovering phosphates from wastewater in industrial or municipal wastewater treatment plants, by - in a mechanical treatment step, adding to the wastewater at least one organic coagulant or polymer selected from the group consisting of polyacrylamide, melamine formaldehydes, polyamine, polyDADMAC, tannins, lignin, starch, cellulose, hemicellulose, alginate, guar gum, chitine, chitosan, and cationic or anionic derivatives thereof, and any combination thereof, that leaves dissolved phosphorus, including dissolved phosphate, in the mechanically treated wastewater, - separating solids as a mechanical sludge from the mechanically treated wastewater by a physical separation step, preferably selected from the group sedimentation, flotation or filtration, - carrying the phosphate-containing mechanically treated wastewater via a biological treatment step, wherein a biological sludge is separated from the treated wastewater, and - after the biological treatment step, carrying the phosphate-containing treated wastewater to a post-treatment step, in which at least one chemical precipitant comprising ferric or ferrous compounds is added to the phosphate containing treated wastewater to precipitate the dissolved phosphate from said treated wastewater into solid phosphates, and - separating the solid phosphates from the treated wastewater to recover the phosphates and to form a final effluent, wherein a maximum amount of phosphorous is kept as dissolved phosphorous in the wastewater until the post-treatment step, at which the dissolved phosphorus is precipitated from the wastewater resulting in the solid phosphates separated in concentrated form from the wastewater in the post-treatment, the process further comprising: - anaerobically digesting the mechanical sludge and the biological sludge to release phosphate bound to the solids into a water phase and returning the water phase to a previous wastewater treatment step that is before the mechanical treatment, and - returning a small portion of the phosphate-containing precipitate from the post-treatment to the anaerobic digestion. - in a mechanical treatment step, adding to the wastewater at least one organic coagulant or polymer selected from the group consisting of polyacrylamide, melamine formaldehydes, polyamine, polyDADMAC, tannins, lignin, starch, cellulose, hemicellulose, alginate, guar gum, chitine, chitosan, and cationic or anionic derivatives thereof, and any combination thereof, that leaves dissolved phosphorus, including dissolved phosphate, in the mechanically treated wastewater, - separating solids as a mechanical sludge from the mechanically treated wastewater by a physical separation step, preferably selected from the group sedimentation, flotation or filtration, - carrying the phosphate-containing mechanically treated wastewater via a biological treatment step, wherein a biological sludge is separated from the treated wastewater, and - after the biological treatment step, carrying the phosphate-containing treated wastewater to a post-treatment step, in which at least one chemical precipitant comprising ferric or ferrous compounds is added to the phosphate containing treated wastewater to precipitate the dissolved phosphate from said treated wastewater into solid phosphates, and - separating the solid phosphates from the treated wastewater to recover the phosphates and to form a final effluent, - anaerobically digesting the mechanical sludge and the biological sludge to release phosphate bound to the solids into a water phase and returning the water phase to a previous wastewater treatment step that is before the mechanical treatment, and - returning a small portion of the phosphate-containing precipitate from the post-treatment to the anaerobic digestion. <EOS>