Mercury is a heavy metal, the second most toxic element in the world. After having suffered from various episodes such as Minamata (Japan, 1953) resulting from mercury poisoning, various techniques are suggested to separate and threat the mercury from natural bodies of water. Recently, adsorption has attracted considerable attention especially from cheap and abundantly available waste materials. This paper is focused on the feasibility of using some low – cost sorbents (bark, lignin, chitin/chitosan, zeolite, peat moss, tree leaves, modified wool etc) in the removal of mercury ions from natural and wastewaters.