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Accumulation of untreated and unrecycled paper has a negative impact on the environment. Like liquid waste handling, paper waste handling is also still being developed. It is known that activated carbon (AC) is one of the promising adsorbents that can be used to solve the environmental issue. Activated carbon can be made from organic waste, such as waste paper. The objective of this study is to investigate the operation condition of the pyrolysis process to obtain the activated carbon. The furnace temperature was set at 400°C for 1 hour under N2 stream with a flow rate of 0.5 L/min. To provide a synergistic effect in the adsorption process, ZnO was derived from ZnCl2 as a chemical activator for making active carbon. While Zn (CH3COO)2.2H2O with different concentrations of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 M was grown into the pores of activated carbon. The photocatalytic activity of AC/ZnO was identified in the degradation process of methylene blue as a model of organic pollutants. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) were used to characterize the product. The morphology of ZnO was observed in the form of a flower-like and occupying the surface of activated carbon. The photocatalytic activity showed that the methylene blue was completely degraded.