The feasibility of utilizing an abundant agricultural waste (desert date seed shell) as an alternative low-cost adsorbent for the removal of hazardous basic dyes [crystal violet (CV) and malachite green (MG)] and hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from synthetic industrial effluent was investigated. Five different adsorbents including the raw, carbonized and chemically activated carbons were prepared and screened with respect to adsorption efficiency of the chosen adsorbates. The prepared adsorbents were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and pH of zero point charge (pHzpc) analyses. The effects of operational variables such as solution pH, contact time and temperature on adsorption have been investigated. The removal of the adsorbates was found to be highly pH-dependent and the optimum pH was determined as 8.0 for the dyes and 2.0 for hexavalent chromium. The screening results revealed that the NaOH activated carbon (NAC) has the best adsorption characteristics with removal efficiencies of 91.10, 99.15 and 91.5 % for CV, MG and Cr(VI), respectively. The process dynamics was evaluated by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Experimental data have been found to be well in line with the pseudo-second-order model, suggesting therefore, a chemically-based sorption process. Negative Gibbs free energy change (∆G) values obtained from thermodynamic analysis indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and had a high feasibility. Positive values for enthalpy change (∆H) showed that the removal process was endothermic, implying that the amount of adsorbate adsorbed increased with increasing reaction temperatures. Additionally, positive values of entropy change (∆S) reflect the high affinity of the adsorbent material to the adsorbates. On the basis of results and their analyses, it has been established that adsorbent derived from desert date seed shell has a promising potential in environmental applications such as removing hazardous substances from industrial effluents. Through this work, it is believed that contributions are provided to the scientific investigations about the decontamination of precious water resources.