The present investigation assesses the applicability of waste materials-bottom ash and deoiled soya-for the removal of the colorant Congo red from wastewaters. The adsorption characteristics and dye removal efficiency of adsorbents have been determined by investigating factors such as effect of pH, effect of concentration of the dye, amount of adsorbents, contact time, and temperature. Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models have been used to evaluate the ongoing adsorption. With the help of adsorption isotherm data different thermodynamic parameters such as free energy; enthalpy, and entropy have been calculated. The estimated free energy has been obtained as -21.52 kJ mol(-1) for bottom ash and -16.88 kJ mol(-1) for deoiled soya. On the basis of pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-Older kinetic equations different kinetic parameters have been obtained. Column operations depicted good adsorptive tendencies for Congo red with 96.95% and 97.14% saturation of dye on bottom ash and deoiled soya, respectively. Regeneration of the saturated columns has been made by eluting NaOH solution and more than 90% dye has been recovered in both cases. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.