The effective disposal of redundant straw is a significant work for environmental protection and full utilization of resource. In this work, the wheat straw has been modified by etherification to prepare a kind of quaternary ammonium straw adsorbents. The adsorption behaviors of the modified straw for methyl orange (MO) and acid green 25(AG25) were studied in both batch and column systems. The adsorption capacity of the straw for both dyes improved evidently after modification. The maximal MO and AG25 uptakes were more than 300 and 950 mg g(-1), respectively. Furthermore, the adsorption equilibrium, kinetics and column studies all indicated that the adsorption behavior was a monolayer chemical adsorption with an ion-exchange process. In addition, after adsorption of anionic dyes, the used adsorbents were successfully applied to adsorb a cationic dye directly at suitable conditions in the secondary adsorption. This was due to the altered surface structures of the used adsorbents. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.