Two pillared clays are synthesized by intercalation of solutions of aluminium and zirconium and evaluated as adsorbents for the removal of Orange II and Methylene Blue from aqueous solutions. The contact time to attain equilibrium for maximum adsorption was found to be 300 min. Both clays were found to have the same adsorption capacity when Orange II was used as adsorbent, whereas the adsorption capacity of Zr-PILC was higher than that of Al-PILC for Methylene Blue. Variations in the diffusion into micropores can explain the results found. The adsorption kinetics of dyes has been studied in terms of pseudo-first- and -second-order kinetics, and the Freundlich, Langmuir and Sips isotherm models have also been applied to the equilibrium adsorption data. The addition of NaCl has been found to increase the adsorption capacities of the two pillared clays for Orange II. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.