Novel PET-based waste materials for arsenic and fluoride removal from water.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste and geogenic pollutants, such as arsenic and fluoride, remain a major concern for both water quality and sustainable waste management. Ensuring access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is a global challenge addressed by Sustainable Development Goal 6. Arsenic and fluoride have been associated with environmental and human health issues due to their toxicity, persistence, and wide distribution in natural water sources, which increases the probability of human exposure and compromise water quality. At the same time, the increasing accumulation of plastic waste underscores the need for valorization strategies aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 12, which promotes responsible consumption and production. Although PET is one of the most recycled plastics, recycling rates remain limited and uneven across regions, highlighting the need for complementary valorization approaches capable of transforming PET waste into value-added materials. In this context, the development of eco-friendly, cost-effective, and high-performance adsorbents is essential for removing pollutants from water, minimizing secondary pollution, and reducing the use of hazardous solvents during material synthesis. In this study, PET waste was used as a precursor for the synthesis of new adsorbents for the removal of arsenic and fluoride from aqueous solutions. The synthetized adsorbents were characterized by FTIR and XRD to identify their functional groups and crystalline phases. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to evaluate the removal of these geogenic contaminants. The maximum adsorption capacity for arsenic and fluoride was 11.69 and 4.12 mg/g, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential of PET-derived adsorbents as sustainable materials for water treatment, simultaneously contributing to the mitigation of geogenic water pollution and the valorization of PET waste within a circular economy framework.