Agricultural wastes as low-cost adsorbents with metal-binding capacities have gained greater scientific attentions; still their selectivity is badly affected by poor surface activity. Therefore, in this study, bagasse pith grafted copolymer (BPGC) adsorbent was prepared by aqueous solution polymerization using bagasse pith waste as raw material and acrylamide as grafting monomer. Textural characterization of the synthesized adsorbent was performed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. The effect of adsorbent dosage, solution pH and initial concentration of Cu(II) on the adsorption performance of BPGC were studied. BPGC realized higher Cu(II) adsorption performance (105.3 mg.g(-1)) than the pristine bagasse pith following pseudo second order kinetic model. The Langmuir adsorption model better described the isothermal adsorption behavior confirming the monolayer adsorption phenomenon. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses and related adsorption data indicated surface complexation and electrostatic interaction phenomena during the adsorption of Cu(II) with the N and O of the amide groups on the BPGC surface. This study can therefore be deemed of promising value for industrial application involving remediation of Cu(II) and other similar heavy metal ions from waste-water. (c) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.