The present work explores the possibility of utilizing sugarcane bagasse fly ash and carbon waste obtained from sugar mills and nitrogenous fertilizer plants, respectively for the removal of pyridine and 3-picoline from waste water. The adsorbing capacity of both adsorbents has been compared with that of activated carbon. Batch studies were conducted to see the effect of contact time, adsorbent dose, initial concentration and pH on the removal of pyridine and 3-picoline. Equilibrium data were fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Adsorptive capacities were found to be in the order: activated carbon > carbon waste > bagasse fly ash. Adsorption was found to follow first order kinetics and intra-particle diffusion was found to be rate controlling. Two-stage batch adsorption (using bagasse fly ash and carbon waste) was found to give 85-100% removal of pyridine. Column studies were also conducted for the removal of pyridine using bagasse fly ash as adsorbent. BDST model was used to analyze the column data.