Abstract: Activated carbons were prepared by steam activation of pyrolysis products from three typical municipal solid organic wastes (MSOW), sawdust (S), paper (PA), plastics (PL) and their mixtures. Factors affecting their adsorbability were investigated. Results show that the adsorbability of MSOW based activated carbons increases with an increase of the ratio of S to PA under a constant fraction of PL, whereas the adsorbability decreases with an increase of the PL content at a constant ratio of S to PA. In addition, the adsorbability of MSOW based activated carbons exhibits a maximum with increasing pyrolysis temperature.