A low cost adsorbent has been tested for its adsorption ability to remove a hazardous dye from textile wastewater. The paper assess the results pertaining to the investigation conducted on the removal of the azo sulfonated dye, direct red 81 by adsorption on the filter cake waste as adsorbent. Adsorption studies were carried out in batch mode to examine the influence of various parameters affecting the removal efficiency of the adsorbent. Isotherm data were found to fit well with the Frendlish adsorption mode. From the estimated mean adsorption energy of  3.8 kJmol^-1 according to the D-R isotherm model and fitting with the pseudo second–order rate equation, we concluded that the adsorption process of the dye onto filter cake is a physical process with some contribution from chemical adsorption.