BACKGROUND: Environmental pollution and its abatement have attracted much attention for some time. The problem of removing pollutants from water and wastewater has grown along with rapid industrialization. Formaldehyde polymerized banana stem (FPBS) having sulphonic acid groups was investigated as an adsorbent for cadmium(II) removal from aqueous solutions. RESULTS: The outstanding function of the adsorbent was demonstrated at pH 9.0. The adsorption efficiency of FPBS was compared with BS and results showed that FPBS was two times more effective than BS for cadmium(II) removal. Maximum recoveries of 97.3 and 90.3% for 10 and 25 mg L-1 initial concentrations were obtained at pH 9.0. Kinetic studies revealed that adsorption occurred in two stages: external mass transport in the first stage and intra-particular diffusion in the second stage. Adsorption was found to be rapid and equilibrium was attained in 60 min. Among the various desorbing agents tested, 99.2% cadmium recovery was achieved with 0.1 mol L-1 HCl. CONCLUSIONS: The uptake efficiency of cadmium(II) by FPBS was determined. Repeated adsorption-desorption study showed that FPBS can be used as an adsorbent for the removal and recovery of Cd(II) from aqueous solutions. (C) 2012 Society of Chemical Industry