A low-cost alginate-melamine hybrid sorbent (named as Alg-Mel) was designed and synthesized for the removal of Pb2+ from water. The as-prepared Alg-Mel sorbent exhibited high affinity and selectivity to Pb2+. The selectivity coefficients of the Alg-Mel for Pb2+/Cd2+, Pb2+/Cu2+, Pb2+/Cr3+ and Pb2+/Co2+ were all over 7. It is found that the hybrid sorbent could uptake 95.4% of Pb2+ from Pb2+-containing solutions (0.48 mM), and the maximum adsorption capacity for Pb2+ reaches 1.39 mmol/g (287.7 mg/g), which is much higher than that of most reported lead ion-sorbents. Furthermore, the Alg-Mel can be regenerated by a simple acid-washing process and used repeatedly. The results of adsorption mechanism analysis reveal that the adsorption of Pb2+ by Alg-Mel is mainly ascribed to the chemical coordination and ion exchange effects.