In this work, heterogeneous photocatalysis was used to treat pulp and paper mill effluent (PPME). Magnetically retrievable FeO-TiO was fabricated by employing a solvent-free mechanochemical process under ambient conditions. Findings elucidated the successful incorporation of FeO into the TiO lattice. FeO-TiO was found to be an irregular and slightly agglomerated surface morphology. In comparison to commercial P25, FeO-TiO exhibited higher ferromagnetism and better catalyst properties with improvements in surface area (58.40 m/g), pore volume (0.29 cm/g), pore size (18.52 nm), and band gap (2.95 eV). Besides, reusability study revealed that FeO-TiO was chemically stable and could be reused successively (five cycles) without significant changes in its photoactivity and intrinsic properties. Additionally, this study demonstrated the potential recovery of FeO-TiO from an aqueous suspension by using an applied magnetic field or sedimentation. Interactive effects of photocatalytic conditions (initial effluent pH, FeO-TiO dosage, and air flow-rate), reaction mechanism, and the presence of chemical oxidants (HO, BrO, and HOCl) during the treatment process of PPME were also investigated. Under optimal conditions (initial effluent pH = 3.88, [FeO-TiO] = 1.3 g/L, and air flow-rate = 2.28 L/min), the treatment efficiency of FeO-TiO was 98.5% higher than the P25. Based on Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model, apparent rate constants of FeO-TiO and P25 were 9.2 × 10 and 2.7 × 10 min, respectively. The present study revealed not only the potential of using magnetic FeO-TiO in PPME treatment but also demonstrated high reusability and easy separation of FeO-TiO from the wastewater.