The evaluation of environmental hazards related to Cu in urban and industrial run-off, as well as the introduction of possible technologies for the remediation of environmentally compromised areas should not be dealt independently form a sound understanding of structural features of the different interacting species. Low cost clay-minerals are potentially very promising materials for effectively exchanging and stoking Cu. A low cost beidellite was thus evaluated. The mineral behavior in accomplish its function is completely different for the natural and for amino acid complexed sample, with a major influence of the amino acid itself. Different experimental techniques were thus introduced: namely chemical, X-ray diffraction, thermal, mass spectrometry and X-ray absorption spectroscopy analyses. All the knowledge thus acquired on natural and treated species was thus finally related to their adsorption and retention capacity.