The invention relates to a method and a device for the disposal and utilization of all sorts of waste materials such as the disposal of industrial, domestic or special waste and related industrial products which have become waste products. The invention also relates especially to the elimination and utilization of gases which are absorbed by cooling water during the rapid cooling of a raw synthesis gas and are released into an area where they are allowed to settle. The waste material which is to be disposed of forms a gas-permeable aggregate (20) in a high-temperature area, wherein a raw synthesis gas is produced. The raw synthesis gas is rapidly cooled, in order to prevent new harmful substances from forming, by spraying cold water, whereupon it is cleansed and the cold water subsequently purified in the sedimentation basin (103). According to the invention, the gases which are released from the cold water in the sedimentation basin (103) are reintroduced into the material cycle or are transformed by heat.