From pollutant to purifier: Upcycling plastic waste into electrospun membranes for water and air remediation

The rapid global accumulation of petroleum-based, non-degradable plastic waste represents a critical environmental challenge. Addressing it requires sustainable, circular material strategies for environmental remediation. In this context, electrospinning has emerged as a transformative technique capable of upcycling polymer waste streams, including polyethylene terephthalate bottles, polystyrene foams, polyester and polyamide textiles, discarded fishing nets, and other post-consumer plastics, into functional fibrous membranes. These waste-derived electrospun membranes offer a dual-benefit approach, simultaneously mitigating plastic pollution while enabling efficient water and air purification. This review compiles advances from the past five years in the fabrication of plastic waste-derived fibrous membranes via solution and melt electrospinning for key environmental applications, including water treatment, oil–water separation, membrane distillation and desalination, and air filtration. Finally, the review considers broader sustainability considerations, including life cycle and energy costs and the still poorly quantified release of secondary micro- and nanoplastics during use, and highlights melt electrospinning as a solvent-free, greener alternative that remains underexplored relative to solution-based electrospinning.