The objective of this work is the removal of malachite green in wastewater using carbon-based absorbents obtained from pyrolysis of waste material from paper industry (WMPI) and pine bark (PB) at 650 degrees C. Carbon-based materials were mixed with malachite green solutions of 100, 50 and 25 mg L-1 and stirred during 1 hour. Experimental results showed that percentages of malachite green removal were higher with the carbon-based material prepared from WMPI (closed to 99%) than the removal percentages obtained by carbon-based adsorbents from PB (69.3-94.5%). These results show that it could be possible the use of low-cost carbon based adsorbents from WMPI and PB to the control of toxic dyes during the wastewater treatment.