BACKGROUND Treatment of paper mill effluent is crucial owing to its high organic constituents which necessitate the use of efficient membranes having greater anti-fouling ability. In this study, functionalized zeolite and activated carbon incorporated polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were developed to maximize the fouling resistance and rejection efficiency thereby to achieve greater reduction levels of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the effluent. RESULTS The synthesized inorganic modifiers such as functionalized copper (Cu)-zeolite, iron (Fe)-zeolite and calcium alginate functionalized activated carbon were incorporated into PES in distinct wt% of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1. The high pure water flux of 38.9 L m(-2) h(-1) was observed with 0.25 wt% of Cu-zeolite when compared to 24.3 L m(-2) h(-1) of virgin PES. The addition of 0.5 wt% of functionalized activated carbon resulted in reduction levels of about 90.2%, 92% and 80% of COD, BOD and TDS respectively. CONCLUSIONS Facile functionalization of zeolite and activated carbon using metal salts and calcium alginate was achieved. Functionalized Cu-zeolite imparted increased hydrophilicity, anti-fouling property and increased pore size compared to that of Fe-zeolite and functionalized activated carbon. (c) 2019 Society of Chemical Industry