In an attempt to control Ca-3(PO4)(2), CaCO3, and CaSO4 deposits in industrial recycling water systems, an acrylic acid (AA) allylpolyethoxy carboxylate (APEC) copolymer was examined as a nonphosphorus inhibitor. The synthesized AA APEC copolymer was characterized by FT-IR. The performance of AA APEC on inhibition of Ca-3(PO4)(2), CaCO3, and CaSO4 precipitation was compared with that of current commercial inhibitors. It was shown that AA APEC exhibited excellent ability to control inorganic minerals, with approximately 82.88% CaSO4 inhibition and 99.89% Ca-3(PO4)(2) inhibition at levels of 3 and 6 mg/L AA APEC, respectively. AA APEC also displayed ability to prevent the formation of CaCO3 scales. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated that the outstanding performance of AA APEC on Ca-3(PO4)(2) inhibition resulted from a decrease in size of Ca-3(PO4)(2) solid particles thereby dispersing these particles throughout a fluid, while CaCO3 inhibition was attributed to the formation of ribbon-shaped structures and CaSO4 inhibition resulted from loose CaSO4 crystallites speculated on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The proposed inhibition mechanism suggests the formation of complexes between the side-chain carboxyl groups of AA APEC and calcium ions on the surface of inorganic minerals, and the excellent solubility of complexes resulted from a number of hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) segments.