Display omitted •Fe(II)-chitosan/alginate composite was fabricated to activate persulfate.•The material showed a higher removal of bisphenol A than Fe(II) with persulfate.•The released Fe ions was readsorbed to the material after reaction with persulfate.•The system maintained efficiency at wide pH and in the presence of various anions. In this study, a novel Fe(II) immobilized chitosan/alginate composite (Fe-Chitoal) was prepared via a simple crosslinking reaction to activate persulfate (PS) to degrade bisphenol A (BPA). The newly synthesized Fe-Chitoal was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which indicated that Fe was successfully imprinted into the composite. The PS/Fe-Chitoal system demonstrated a much higher removal efficiency of BPA (99.5%) than the conventional PS/Fe(II) system (69.2%) with a negligible amount of Fe ions released into the solution. The effects of different experimental conditions, including the concentration of PS, concentration of Fe-Chitoal, and pH, on the removal of BPA were also investigated. The removal rate increased with increasing amounts of PS and Fe-Chitoal, and a high removal efficiency was maintained at a pH of 2–10. The PS/Fe-Chitoal system was rarely affected by high concentrations of anions (Cl−, SO42−, NO3−, and HCO3−), and the composite catalyst could be reused in a synthetic sewage solution. To simply separate the material, a Fe-Chitoal mesh bag was fabricated, which showed a consistent catalytic reactivity toward PS and BPA removal suggesting practical field applications.