There is a lack of effective means to recycle waste thermosetting plastics at home and abroad, and most of them can only be landfilled or incinerated, which not only occupies a large amount of land resources, but also causes re-pollution due to a variety of harmful substances. If waste phenolic plastic is used as binder, the purpose of waste resource utilization can be achieved. At the same time, phenolic plastic is based on phenolic resin, which contains a large number of benzene rings in its structure and has a large cross-linking density, so it is feasible to use it as an active coke binder. In addition, phenolic plastic was prepared as binder and activated coke was made from lignite and charred coal, and the effects of phenolic plastic content and activation temperature on the performance of activated coke were explored by FTIR and N2 adsorption/desorption. The results show that with the increase of the content of phenolic plastics, the strength of activated coke is enhanced, while both the basic functional group content and the specific surface area are decreased. When the content of phenolic plastics is 20%, pressure resistance strength and wear resistance strength of activated coke can meet the national high-grade standards. Meanwhile, the specific surface area of activated coke reaches to 262 m2/g and sulfur capacity reaches to 9.88 mg/g, which is higher than that of industrial coke. With the increase of the activation temperature, the content of basic functional group and specific surface of activated coke area firstly increases and then decreases. When the activation temperature reaches to 800 ℃, the content of basic functional group and specific surface area reach to the maximum, the connection way between activated coke C—C and C with other atoms of surface has changed, aromatic ring is continuously compressed, side and branched chain is decreased, the activation effect is obvious. At this time, the sulfur capacity is the largest, and the desulfurization performance is the best.