Herein, the recycled magnetite obtained from industrial ferrous scrap was used as an ecofriendly, sustainable iron source in the photo-Fenton degradation of carbamazepine (CBZ), an emerging contaminant in the aqueous environment. Citrate was used as a robust chelating agent to trap and stabilize the iron required for the Fenton reaction. The results proved the formation of the Fe(III)-citrate complex, followed by the reduction of iron to Fe(II) and the formation of harmless molecules such as malonate under UV radiation. The adopted photo-Fenton process in the presence of magnetite (0.3 g L-1), H 2 O 2 (0.5 mM), and citrate (0.1 mM) led to about 77% degradation of CBZ. Then, degradation efficiency was improved to 99% by increasing the prior contact time between citrate and magnetite. In addition, 1 mM of citrate and 2 mM of H 2 O 2 were found to be the optimal values for the degradation of CBZ under the adopted photo-Fenton process. Eventually, the experiments illustrated that the recycled magnetite could be used in the photo-Fenton process in five successive cycles without losing its efficiency.