In order to easily separate pollutant-absorbing polymer beads from contaminated soil or water, novel polymer beads containing magnetic particles were developed. The polymer beads containing 4.67% (w/w) magnetic particles exhibited an almost identical partitioning coefficient for phenol compared to that of the pure polymer. A 1.5 L phenol solution of 2000 mg/L added to a bioreactor was reduced to 481 mg/L phenol within 3 h by adding 100g of these magnetic beads, and the phenol was completely degraded by microorganisms in 16 h. The magnetized beads were then readily removed from the bioreactor by a magnet with 10,000G, and subsequently detached for re-use. 500g of soil contaminated with 4 mg-phenol/g-soil was also contacted with 100 g beads, and greater than 97% removal of phenol from the soil was achieved within 1 day. The phenol-absorbing beads were easily separated from the soil by the magnet and transferred into a fermentor. The phenol was released from the beads and was degraded by the microorganism in 10h. Modifying polymers to possess magnetic properties has greatly improved the ease of handling of these sequestering materials when decontaminating soil and water sources, in conjunction with contaminant release in partitioning bioreactors. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.