Acidic soils with pH values below 5.5 are widely distributed throughout Croatia and they cover up to 20.3% of the continental part of Croatia and even 50% of arable land. Acidity is one of the reasons for reduced fertility of soil as soil with low pH can have the toxicity effect of harmful trace metals, lack of calcium and magnesium, and phosphorus chemical fixation. Therefore, often liming is applied as a measure to raise the soil pH to optimum. The aim of our research was to compare four different liming materials, by-products from different industries (wood ash, filter dust, lime and slag) and to evaluate their effectiveness in neutralising soil pH but also to test for the possible negative effect of input of harmful trace elements. Wood ash came from biomass electricity plant, filter dust from cement factory, lime from sugar factory and blast-furnace slag from iron and steel making industry. Out of these four only lime from sugar factory is commonly used as lime material available on the market. Two filed trials were set up to determine the effect of the studied materials to neutralize the acidity, and the impact on soil fertility and nutrient status in the soil. We hypothesise that lime materials with high concentrations of trace elements might increase trace element concentrations in the soil. The results showed that filter dust, wood ash and lime from sugar factory raised the pH of the soil significantly while slag failed to do so. The yield of alfalfa was not affected by any of the observed materials however wood ash increased significantly the concentrations of potassium and phosphorus in soil. Concentrations of potentially toxic elements in soils (Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd) in the analysed materials were below the maximum permissible concentrations for soils, with exceptions for Cd in ash and filter dust and Zn and Cu in slag and ash (Official gazette 32/10). However, considering that this is not the soil but the material that will be mixed into the soil MPC for soil cannot be taken into account. For example, MPC concentrations of Cd in the sewage sludge are 5 mg/kg by which ash and filter dust meet the prescribed conditions. Therefore, the application of all four liming materials did not show the increase of harmful trace elements in the soil. Furthermore, concentrations of toxic trace elements in alfalfa also showed no increased values. Therefore, filter dust, wood ash and lime from suger factory can be used as liming materials in agriculture.