The literature data on the crushed walnut shells usageas a sorption material for metal ions, dyes and some organic compounds removal from aqueous media are summarized. Trees of the Juglans regia species are widespread in Russia; their shells are natural annually replenished material that is of industrial importance and can be used as sorption material for the extraction of many pollutants from aquatic environments. The paper gives a characteristic of the walnut shell, shows the indicators of the main substances that make up the shell (cellulose, lignin, hemicellululose), indicates the approximate specific surface area for BET and the content of functional groups. The results of studies of the adsorption of metal ions and and some dyes adsorption by walnut shellsare considered. The values of sorption indices for the studied pollutants are given. It is shown that it is possible to increase the sorption characteristics by chemical modification of the Juglans regia shell. It is determined that sorption isotherms in most cases are more fully described by the Langmuir model, and the process kinetics in all cases obeys the pseudo-second order model.