JFET_V3_N1_RP3 Kailas L. Wasewar Ravichandra Y. Anil Kumar M. Vishwanath Godbole Journal on Future Engineering and Technology 2230 – 7184 3 1 41 46 Heavy metals, Tea waste, Adsorption, Adsorption mechanism The important toxic metals i.e. Cd, Zn, Ni, and Pb finds its way to the water bodies through waste waters are responsible for environmental pollution. There are numerous methods currently employed to remove and recover the metals from our environment. Adsorption is a promising alternative method to treat industrial effluents, mainly because of its low cost and high metal binding capacity. Tea waste is one of the low cost and easily available adsorbent and having strong adsorptivity towards metals like Cd, Zn, Ni, and Pb because of the soft colloid and chemical components like palmitinic acid of fatty group, terpenes and dibutyl phthalate present in it. The mechanism of adsorption can be described using the adsorption isotherm. The available experimental data were used. The adsorption mechanism for the adsorption of heavy metals (Cd, Ni, Pb) using tea waste has been presented. The adsorption mechanism for the adsorption of heavy metals using tea waste is well described by Freundlich isotherm. August - October 2007 Copyright © 2007 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=696