<p>Refractory pharmaceuticals in hospital wastewater pose serious environmental and health risks. In this regard, electrocoagulation (EC) as an onsite treatment methodology has been found effective in removing toxic compounds; however, high electrode costs limit large-scale implementation. As a low-cost alternative, waste aluminium cans anode (AA_can) and waste steel mesh cathode were investigated for the removal of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) through the EC process. Detailed morphological, chemical, and electrochemical properties of the sacrificial anode (AA_can) and EC-sludge were evaluated through different characterisations. Furthermore, under optimised conditions, the process achieved 76.3 ± 2.4% removal of SMX, conforming to pseudo-first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.11&#xa0;min⁻¹, and incurred an operational cost of INR 1.78/m³. Additionally, the EC process was found effective for the treatment of different wastewater matrices with a high reusability of 1143 times before dissolution. Moreover, the life cycle analysis shows that AA_can-based EC has sevenfold lower environmental impact than the traditional EC process. Thus, using discarded aluminium cans as sacrificial anode material in electrocoagulation offers a dual benefit of waste repurposing and cost-effective wastewater treatment with a positive impact on the environment compared to other coagulation processes.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>