The silica gel waste (SGW), collected from solid waste of a local factory at Kolkata, India was modified with cationic surfactant and was utilized as an adsorbing media for the removal of methyl orange dye from aquatic environment. The characterization of base adsorbent and modified adsorbent was carried out. In batch mode, the kinetic study, isotherm study and effect temperature and shaking speed were carried out. The removal efficiency of surfactant modified silica gel waste (SMSGW) in case synthetically prepared wastewater was also examined. The sorption was found to follow the pseudo second order reaction kinetics model and also Langmuir isotherm model. The chemisorption was the rate limiting step for the adsorption process.