To provide a method for dehydrating a waste ink and solidifying pigment used in the ink to recover with a simple process for a short time and to prevent an environmental contamination.

The method is intended to remove water or a vaporable component from waste ink I and then solidify the pigment IA contained in the waste ink I; and comprises repeating a process that steel balls 1 are dived into the waste ink I held in a drying cylinder 2, are heated at a prescribed temperature by a heating means 3, are stirred with a screw paddle 2b to stick the waste ink I on the surfaces of the steel bass, are taken out one after another, are cooled with air supplied through a ventilating means 4 to dry the waste ink I by removing water or the vaporable component, are scratched with the rotary brush 5c of a cylinder 5 to recover the dried pigment IA stuck on the steel balls 1, and are returned back to dive into the waste ink I.