Abstract: With the wide application of rare earth polishing powder in glass polishing and other industries, the amount of waste and invalid rare earth polishing powder has been increasing year by year. Rare earth is an indispensable and non-renewable resource. It has become inevitable to recover it from its waste and invalid polishing powder. Domestic and foreign researchers have carried out fruitful research on this topic. In this paper, the chemical composition and phase composition of rare earth and impurity elements in waste rare earth polishing powder were analyzed, especially the occurrence state of Al, Si, etc., and the latest separation and extraction of rare earth Ce and La in recent years were reviewed. The phase transition of rare earth elements, the leaching behavior of impurity elements, and the deep impurity removal path in the separation process were analyzed. The development direction of rare earth recovery in waste rare earth polishing was summarized and prospected.