The large-scale extraction and processing of ores to produce mineral products like alumina, steel, copper, and phosphoric acid result in the generation of significant amounts of residues and by-products, known as industrial by-products (IBPs), including bauxite residue (red mud), slag, copper tailings, and phosphogypsum, respectively. Similarly, large volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated by the households and industries which are disposed of in landfills. Both these wastes pose significant environmental risks such as ground water contamination, soil infertility, air pollution, etc. Therefore, their effective disposal has become a critical challenge for stakeholders and the industries involved are looking for the possible utilization of these wastes to reduce their volume. In this regard, this manuscript presents a comprehensive review of the characteristics of IBPs and MSW to understand their utilization potentials. To do so, past studies conducted by various researchers on the utilization of IBPs and MSW for various applications are discussed. The characteristics of both IBPs and MSW are reviewed based on their composition, physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties. It is found from the characterization studies that IBPs can contaminate the environment due to the presence of heavy metals beyond the unacceptable limits. Similarly, the studies performed on MSW indicated that plastic waste (PW) is one of the dominant, yet less utilized components present in landfills. One of the approaches to reduce the heavy metal leaching from IBPs could be their encapsulation within PW through polymer composites which prevent their infiltration into the geosphere. Overall, the study concludes that polymer composites derived from IBPs and PW present a promising solution for addressing emerging contaminants and enabling the large-scale utilization of plastic waste.