A facile route of poly (vinyl alcohol)/alginate@ polyacrylamide (PVA/SA@PAM) for heavy metal adsorption was prepared by crosslinking with PAM onto PVA/SA, which complemented both benefits of natural and synthetic polymers, resulting from the design of core-shell/bead-like structure and polymer blending. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) etc. were applied to characterize as-synthesized beads. The results showed the optimal pH value was 5.0. The adsorption process of Cu(II) fitted well with the Freundlich isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order model in batch system. The experimental maximum adsorption capacity was 79.5 +/- 1.6 mg/g under the optimal condition, which is approximately 2.3 and 2 times higher than that of plain SA beads and PVA/SA beads, respectively. Thermodynamic studies revealed the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Thomas model was fitted better than Bohart-Adams model with breakthrough curves under different initial Cu(II) concentration in a column system. More importantly, the PVA/SA@PAM showed excellent mechanical stability and resistance for interference of co-existing ions. Besides, its removal ability only decreased slightly even after eleven cycles in reusability tests. Overall, PVA/SA@PAM exhibits attractive characteristics of simple production process, low cost, good adsorption capacity, excellent adaptability and chemical and mechanical stability.