Microplastic pollution in freshwater systems is an emerging environmental concern and a threat to ecosystem health. As such, there is an increasing interest in evaluating methods of microplastic removal from water. This study assessed the efficacy of acid activated clay and fly ash composites as adsorbents that can remove polyethylene terephthalate microplastics from aquatic environments. Therefore, clay minerals in this case sourced from the Gwayi area in Zimbabwe, have been widely used in wastewater treatment because of their wide availability, low cost and suitable properties such as high porosity, high swelling, high cation exchange capacity and mechanical strength. Similarly, fly ash which is a by-product from the power generation plant, has been used in water treatment due to properties such as a porous structure, moderate surface area and reactive sites. Hydrochloric acid was used for activating the composites followed by characterization using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). A removal efficiency of 96.04% was obtained. The equilibrium and kinetic test results indicated a correlation with the Langmuir model and pseudo second order. Furthermore, the study shows the potential of these low cost composites in reducing microplastics from wastewater, thereby preventing discharge into freshwater systems.