The macroporous chelating ion exchangers containing different functional groups i.e. Purolite S-920, Purolite S-930 and Lewatit TP-208 have been used in the sorption process of Zn(II) and Pb(II) ions. The effect of the presence of biodegradable, environmentally friendly aminopolycarboxylate chelating agent, trisodium salt of methylglycinediacetic acid (MGDA) on its sorption capacity was also examined. The investigations were carried out by the static method. Besides the effect of initial concentration of Zn(II) and Pb(II) and the complexing agent the research concerns the influence of solution pH, phase contact time on effectiveness of sorption. The equilibrium and kinetics of Zn(II)-MGDA and Pb(II)-MGDA complexes sorption were obtained and fitted using the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) models as well as the pseudo first and pseudo second order kinetic models. The intraparticle diffusion model was also used. The results showed that the sorption processes of Zn(II) and Pb(II) complexes with MGDA on Purolite S-920, Purolite S-930 and Lewatit TP-208 followed well the pseudo second order kinetics. (C) 2012 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.