Tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222), benzocaine and 2-phenoxyethanol (2-PE) are widely used in inten-sive aquaculture systems to control stress during handling and confinement operations. This work aimedto study the adsorptive removal of these anaesthetics from water, comparing two waste-based adsorbentsproduced by pyrolysis of paper mill sludge with a commercial activated carbon. The use of commercialactivated carbon resulted in maximum adsorption capacities of 631, 435 and 289 mg g−1for MS-222, ben-zocaine and 2-PE, respectively (obtained by the fitting of Langmuir-Freundlich model), which are between4 and 8 times higher than those determined for the alternative adsorbents. Even so, the obtained resultspoint to the promissory utilization of these waste-based adsorbents in Recirculating Aquaculture Sys-tems, as an integrated way of managing such residues and treatment of aquaculture waters contaminatedwith anaesthetics.