Disposal of cotton gin by-products such as cotton gin trash (CGT) has typically been accomplished by several methods such as incineration, spreading on soil, composting, feeding to livestock, and dumping. Numerous other methods have been considered but none are in widespread use. This study considered the potential for CGT as well as other gin by-products to be used to clean up oil spills. The components of cotton such as plant parts, fiber, linters, motes, etc. were evaluated. Results indicated that fibrous waste such as lint cleaner waste could absorb 67 times its weight in oil. Trash collected in the seed cotton cleaning process was much less efficient at about 9 to 1. Gin by-products can be utilized to efficiently remove oil from water surfaces.