Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 (SBA-15) nanostructured material has been broadly utilized for various applications, including adsorption, separation, photocatalytic, and CO2 capture, owing to its intrinsic physicochemical properties. Several commercial silica precursors, such as tetraethyl orthosilicate and sodium silicate, have been utilized to develop SBA-15. Nevertheless, these commercial silica precursors are relatively expensive and non-environmental benign. Thus, the idea of synthesizing SBA-15 in a low-cost green approach has emerged by adopting silica-rich wastes as an alternative silica precursor. This review article reports the preparation of SBA-15 with various silica-rich wastes, including palm oil fuel ash, coal gangue, rice husk ash, sugarcane bagasse, leaf ash, and fly ash. Special attention has been devoted to the SBA-15's physicochemical properties, including surface area, well-defined porous architecture, and ability to incorporate metal atoms within the mesopores, making SBA-15 a promising material for various applications. The recent development of fibrous SBA-15 is also discussed owing to its improved physicochemical properties towards the applications. © 2024 Author(s).