The adsorption characteristics of chromium (VI) and phosphate on calcined Mg-Al-$CO_3$ layered double hydroxides (CLDH) were investigated in single and binary systems. A series of batch experiments were performed to study the influence of various experimental parameters. In this study, CLDH exhibited a high adsorption capacity for Cr (VI) and P in a single system. The experimental data were close to the theoretical adsorption capacity given by the Langmuir isotherm, the calculating adsorption capacities of Cr (VI) and P were up to 70.42 mg/g and 97.09 mg/g, respectively. It was found that the initial pH was approximately 6 and it took 24 h to reach equilibrium when P and Cr (VI) were added simultaneously. The experimental data were best fitted by a pseudo-second-order kinetics model. Competitive adsorption between Cr (VI) and P existed in the binary system. The presence of Cr (VI) had no significant influence on P adsorption. However, the suppression of Cr (VI) adsorption was obvious when the initial concentration of P was up to 10 mg/L with a concentration of 0.5 g/L of CLDH.