In this study, polyacrylic acid modified filter paper (FP/PAA) was synthesized by in-situ polymerization of acrylic acid, which was used as a matrix to chelate nano-scale zero valent iron (nZVI). The loading content of nZVI in the filter paper reached 24.8%. The fabricated composite FP/PAA/nZVI was characterized by SEM, FT-IR and TGA respectively. Moreover, it was used for the removal of methyl blue and methylene blue as model anionic and cationic dyes. The effect of initial dye concentration on decolorization efficiency was investigated. The results showed that FP/PAA/nZVI enhanced the removal of dye from the simulated dye wastewater and the decolorization efficiency exceeded 95% for the dye solutions lower than 20 mg/L. More importantly, the filter paper supported nZVI realized the continuous treatment of simulated dye wastewater by a simple filtration process. This study hopes to serve as a basis for the application of nZVI in textile wastewater treatment.