Antimicrobial paper for packaging was prepared with nano-silver as main anti-bacterial ingredients and polyvinyl alcohol as binder, and the inhibition zone method was adopted to evaluate its antibacterial effect on escherichia coli. The effects of different polyvinyl alcohol and nano-silver on the antibacterial performance, the tensile strength and elongation rate of antimicrobial paper were researched. The results show that the tensile strength and elongation rate of antimicrobial paper meet the needs of packaging, the antimicrobial paper has excellent antibacterial property, and the antibacterial property of antimicrobial paper improves with the increasing contents of nano-silver and PVA.