We introduce a facile strategy to upcycle lignin waste to valuable activated carbon (AC). Unlike conventional preparation processes of AC, such as high-temperature carbonization above 600 °Cfollowed by chemical or physical activation, we synthesized AC through low-carbonization (~300 °C), ball-milling, and thermal activation. Lowtemperature carbonization effectively led to the formation of the micro-pores and simultaneously high yield. Uniform activated morphology of char lignin is achieved through a ball-milling process. The as-synthesized AC exhibited a large specific surface area of 1075.18m2 g-1, high specific capacitance of 115.1 F g-1, and excellent adsorbability of 0.23 gtoluene per gactivated carbon. Therefore, we believe that the presented facile strategy could lead to the realization of upcycling of lignin waste to highly useful AC.