The present study was undertaken to compare the adsorption efficiency of activated carbon prepared from animal horns (AHC), which is both a waste and a pollutant and a commercial activated carbon (CAC) with respect to uptake of the organic components responsible for the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of industrial wastewater. The adsorption process was examined in terms of its equilibria and its kinetics. The effect of pH, contact time and adsorbent dose were investigated. The most effective pH was found to be 5 for AHC and 6 for CAC. The equilibrium data for COD removal fitted the Linear, Langmuir and the Freundlich models. The mechanisms of the rate of adsorption of COD were analysed using the pseudo second-order model. The model provided a very high degree of correlation of the experimental adsorption rate data suggesting that this model could be used in design applications.