Ibuprofen is a contaminant of emerging concern (CEC) released into the environment that, due to its overconsumption and low degradation, accumulates in ecosystems. Additionally, conventional wastewater treatment methods are characterized by high energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and costs, and the risk of secondary contamination, and they are not effective in removing CECs. In this context, adsorption has emerged as an effective and simple technique that is widely used in water treatment to remove various types of contaminants. This work aimed to study the potential of alginate spheres containing activated carbon for the removal of ibuprofen from aqueous solutions and treated wastewater spiked with the drug. Kinetic assays were carried with different initial concentrations of ibuprofen and three desorption solvents were evaluated: ethanol, methanol, and HCl 0.2M. Ibuprofen quantification was carried out at 222 nm by UV--Vis spectroscopy and reversed-phase HPLC. The spheres showed substantial adsorption capacities around 20 mg/g with high ibuprofen concentrations but also a significant adsorption ability with low mg/L concentrations. For desorption, methanol and ethanol were the most suitable solvents with both achieving a desorption ratio of 100%. Cycles of adsorption/desorption revealed the material maintained its ibuprofen removal capacity after desorption with both solvents. Furthermore, removal superior to 90% was achieved for ibuprofen concentrations close to those found in real environments when using laboratory aqueous solution or wastewater-treated effluent as a matrix. This study indicates alginate spheres containing activated carbon as a sustainable adsorbent material for ibuprofen at concentrations similar to those found in samples of environmental relevance and using a matrix of the wastewater treatment plant effluent. Moreover, the adsorption capacity was maintained after desorption with both ethanol and methanol. In the future, more studies will be conducted to transfer the technology format from batch to fixed-bed column.