The invention relates to a method for recovering copper and nickel from copper-nickel based alloy waste, and belongs to the technical field of comprehensive utilization of resources. The method comprises the following steps of: heating the copper-nickel based alloy waste to reach a molten state, and then casting to form a soluble anode plate; electrolyzing with the soluble anode plate as an anode, a stainless steel plate as a cathode, and copper sulfate as electrolyte until the concentration of copper ion in the electrolyte is reduced to 5 to 30g/L, thus obtaining copper on the cathode; recycling the obtained electrolyte to cyclone electrodeposition, namely, performing electrodeposition with an insoluble iridium film as an anode and an annular titanium plate as a cathode until the concentration of copper ion in the electrolyte reaches 1 to 5g/L, thus obtaining copper on the cathode; performing nickel electrodeposition by using the obtained copper-free electrolyte as the electrolyte, lead anode composite plate as an anode and another stainless steel plate as a cathode, thus obtaining nickel on the cathode after the cathode electrodeposition cycle is ended. The method enables the anode plate casting process and the alloy structure breaking process to be coupled and integrated, thus the energy-saving effect of the process is remarkable.