Herein, a novel magnetic iron-based carbon microsphere was prepared by cohydrothermal treatment of tobacco waste liquid (TWL) and waste iron residue (WIR) to form WIR@TWL. After that, WIR@TWL was coated with sodium polyacrylate (S.P.) to fabricate WIR@TWL@SP, whose removal efficiency for bivalent cadmium (Cd(II)) was studied in water and soil. As a result, WIR@TWL@SP possessed a high Cd(II) removal efficiency, which could reach 98.5% within 2 h. The adsorption process was consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model because of the higher value of adjusted R2 (0.99). The thermodynamic data showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous (ΔG° < 0) and exothermic (ΔH° = 32.42 KJ·mol-1 > 0). Cd(II) removal mechanisms also include cation exchange, electrostatic attraction, hydrogen-bond interaction, and cation-π interaction. Notably, pot experiments demonstrated that WIR@TWL@SP could effectively reduce Cd absorption by plants in water and soil. Thus, this study offers an effective method for remediating Cd(II)-contaminated water and soil and may have a practical application value.