Herein, the oil/water separation property of four polyethylene (PE) foams with two different volume expansion ratios including 15 and 30 times was studied. We found that the PE-30-1 foam was the best absorbent materials among these four samples, which was also superior to the commercially available products. It demonstrated high oil absorption capacities, as well as high oil/water selectivity, which was due to its small average pore size and high porosity. In addition, this work also reports two rapid and straightforward methods to fabricate PE-30-1-ZIF-8 composite with enhanced compressive property, an encouraging absorption capacity for different organic solvents, reaching 59 times of its own weight for chloroform, as well as increased oil-water selectivity of the system. Comparing with the PE foam, the organic solvent absorption capacities for PE-ZIF-8-sono composite foams were improved by 6.4%, 29%, 9.1%, and 12% for chloroform, acetone, toluene and oleic acid, respectively, while the corresponding improvement for PE-ZIF-8-Me(OH) was about 7.5%, 28%, 14%, and 15%, respectively. These PE-ZIF-8 foams could reach the requirement for oil spill cleanup, suggesting its great potential for this type of application. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:1354-1361 2019. (c) 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers