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• Graphite was regenerated by acid leaching and graphene-like carbon coating. • The structure defects of graphite are well repaired. • The graphene-like carbon layer improves electrochemical performance of graphite. • The recycled graphite can meet the standard of commercial material. The recycling of waste electrode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is attracting widespread attention from the perspective of the reutilization of resources and environment protection. Nevertheless, the low added value, complex separation steps and the structure defects induced in the long-term charge/discharge process reduce people's interest for secondary utilization of waste graphite anode. More importantly, if waste graphite anode is not prudently treated, it will cause black pollution. Herein, we report a facile and efficient graphene-like coating strategy for the regeneration of waste graphite. Using low-cost Humic Acid as the coated carbon source and waste graphite as the core, graphene-like-coated graphite anode material was prepared by sulfuric acid leaching and in situ carbonization of Humic Acid. Humic Acid containing aromatic rings can be in-situ converted to a graphene-like coating layer to repair the surface defects of graphite during thermal treatment, which can effectively restore the Li+ transport channels, improve the rate performance and cycle stability of the reconstructed graphite anode. When it is reused as anode material of LIBs, the reconstructed graphite anode shows a high initial Coulombic efficiency of 86.2 %, high capacity of 352.76 mAh/g and good retention capacity rate of 86.7 % after 400 cycles at 0.5C. Therefore, the graphene-like coating strategy provides a significant exploration for the recycling and regeneration of waste graphite anode materials, and it is conducive to the realization of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]