Halogen-containing plastic materials have been converted into nanoporous carbon by a template carbonization method, using zinc powder as an efficient hard template. The mass ratio between plastics and zinc powder as well as carbonization temperature plays a crucial role in determining the carbon structures and resultant electrochemical performances. The PTFE-1:3-700 sample that is obtained by carbonizing polytetrafluoroethene and zinc powder (the mass ratio of 1:3) at 700 degrees C has a large BET surface area of 800.5 m(2) g(-1) and a high total pore volume of 1.59 cm(3) g(-1), also delivering excellent specific capacitance of 313.7 F g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1). Moreover, it exhibits a superior cycling stability with high capacitance retention of 93.10% after cycling for 5000 times. More importantly, it can be extended to produce nanoporous carbon derived from other halogen-containing plastic materials such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) and poly(vinyl chloride), revealing the generality of the synthesis method.