The invention discloses an application method of a waste copper based catalyst to preparing a catalyst for preparing hydrogen from methanol, which is characterized by application of the waste copper based catalyst to preparing a novel catalyst for preparing hydrogen from methanol. The application method comprises the steps of: 1, calcining: calcining an inactivated waste copper based catalyst; 2,aid-leaching: mixing the waste copper based catalyst with nitric acid; 3, filtering and removing impurities: filtering a solution obtained from the step 2 by adopting a metal salt separation nanofiltration membrane filtering technology to obtain a mixed solution of Cu and Zn ions; and 4, regenerating: analyzing and calibrating the mixed solution in the step 3, adding a certain component, and generating the new copper based catalyst through a coprecipitation method. The application method can be used for effectively recycling two metals including Cu and Zn in the copper based catalyst, therebybeing beneficial to increasing the recycling rate of the metals in the waste copper based catalyst and reducing the production cost of the catalyst for preparing hydrogen from methanol.