This work explores the use of chitosan as an adsorbent of common chlorinated organics in waste water, namely 4-chlorophenol and tetrachloroethylene. We use both isothermal adsorption equilibrium and dynamic adsorption experiments to describe the phenomena of adsorption at pH 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9. Results show that 4-chlorophenol is adsorbed the greatest at pH 6 while tetrachloroethylene is adsorbed the greatest at pH 4. The Langmuir constant b values range from 0.00003 to 0.00012 and 0.00001 to 0.00007 for 4-chlorophenol and tetrachloroethylene, respectively, and overall it appeared that the binding energy of 4-chlorophenol to chitosan is higher than that of tetrachloroethylene. Dynamic adsorption experiments show that the adsorption of 4-chlorophenol on chitosan follows a second order process while tetrachloroethylene follows a first order process, where the external mass transport coefficient of 4-chlorophenol and tetrachloroethylene ranged from 0.081 - 0.755 and 0.009 -0.285, respectively. Additionally, the in ernal pore diffusion rate of 4-chlorophenol inside the micropores of chitosan is shown to be approximately 2.5 times that of tetrachloroethylene.