In modern world, the excessive utilization of expanded polystyrene (EPS) across various fields such as packaging, insulation, disposable food containers and others is significantly contributing to environmental pollution. This is attributed to the inherent toughness, chemical resistance, and non-biodegradable nature of EPS, which makes it challenging to decompose and recycle. On the other hand, the presence of sulfur compounds in automotive fuels is a major source of toxic SOx gases emission to environment. To address the environmental hazards associated with EPS and sulfur compounds in fuels, a facile and low-cost solution is proposed which involves the functionalization of waste EPS with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and graphene oxide (GO) to develop GO-MOF-EPS composite membrane. The synthesized material could be effectively used for the cleaning of automotive fuels from sulfur compounds through adsorptive desulfurization (ADS). The as-prepared GO and Cu-MOF were added to waste EPS solution made in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and converted into high-affinity composite membrane. The GO, Cu-MOF and the processed EPS membrane were characterized by FTIR. For ADS, the plain and composite EPS membranes were exposed separately, to standard thiophene solutions and the resulting change in absorbance was measured using UV/Vis. Notably, the composite membrane exhibited superior adsorptive removal of thiophene compared to plain EPS membrane. The combination of GO and Cu-MOF with waste EPS holds promise in the development of effective adsorbent materials. This study offers a low-cost and sustainable solution for managing waste EPS while concurrently reducing sulfur content in automotive fuels. The proposed approach employs a facile yet environmentally benign ADS strategy.