Environmental contamination due to anthropogenic wastewater discharges containing high concentrations of toxic metals is omnipresent in the environment. Some of the sources of heavy metal contamination include – mining, pigment, paint, and coatings industries, tanneries, municipal landfills, metal plating, power plants (thermal and nuclear), and more. Stringent regulations on wastewater discharges have caused an increased significance in removal and recovery of these metals from various wastewater systems, thereby remediating the contaminated sites as well. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the use of solid phase adsorbents for metal ion remediation applications. This interest has led to the development of silica polyamine composites functionalized with metal selective ligands for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater streams. These composites are developed to remove one specific or a set of specific metal ions from contaminated waters, depending on the need. Arsenic and selenium are highly toxic elements to human health and the environment. The Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for both these toxic metals continue to become more and more stringent over the years. We obtained high arsenic (III & V) and selenium (IV & VI) extraction capacities by immobilizing zirconium on our patented silica polyamine composites. Zirconium chelates the oxo-anions of these two metals, thereby removing them from the wastewater stream and making the effluent stream metal concentrations below the MCL. Also, these silica polyamine composites can be acid stripped and regenerated for reuse.