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AyRojgar

Paper bag and packaging making

Buying waste paper, folding bags by hand and supplying shops. Khaki bags sell at Tk 135-140 a kg and white at Tk 80; 60 kg of paper costs Tk 7,500 and yields 70 kg of bags for Tk 2,300 profit.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Starting capital
৳10,000 – ৳60,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 20 people
First sale
3 – 15 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
1 – 2 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Home based · Easy

What the business is

Buying waste paper, folding it into bags by hand and supplying them to shops. The trade lives on other industries' discards: it once ran on paper cement sacks and now the main source of khaki paper is the 25 kg powdered milk packet. Nazrul Kazi of Kagzipara in Mirkadim, Munshiganj, says those packets cost Tk 18-20 each, five or six make a kilo, and a kilo of paper turned into a kilo of bags sells at Tk 135 or Tk 140. White bag paper comes from school and college exam scripts and office waste, bought by the kilo at Nimtoli in Dhaka, and sells at Tk 80 a kilo. The glue is flour, water and blue vitriol - the bitter taste keeps rats and cockroaches off the stock. The sum is plain: 60 kg of paper becomes 70 kg of bags once the glue is on. The 60 kg costs Tk 6,000 and labour, transport and sundries add Tk 1,500, so Tk 7,500 in all; 70 kg at Tk 140 brings Tk 9,800 and leaves Tk 2,300. The buyers are spice shops, fruit sellers, dal and sugar grocers, puri and singara stalls, jhalmuri vans and pharmacies - khaki bags are used by every spice shop at Dhaka's Moulvibazar and by virtually every pharmacy. But the peak is March to June, only four months, and the rest of the year runs at break-even or worse. And the competitor is polythene: banned, still openly on sale in 2026, and two to three times cheaper than a paper bag.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳7,500 – ৳2,57,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳80 – ৳140 / kgMarket quote
Variable cost৳86 – ৳107 / kgEditorial estimate
Gross margin21% – 24%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue3 – 15 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time1 – 2 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle2 – 10 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss2% – 5%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity80 – 83Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • Scissors or a cutter, a measuring rule, a glue pot and brush, hardboard for the base and twine for bundling. Bags are not machine-made; the whole job is by hand.Equipment
  • Khaki paper from 25 kg powdered milk packets at Tk 18-20 a piece, five or six to the kilo, so Tk 90-120 a kg. White paper from exam scripts and used office paper bought by the kilo at Nimtoli in Dhaka. For comparison, new white writing paper is Tk 34-40 per dista (TCB, 15 September 2026), which this trade cannot use.Starting stock
  • Glue ingredients: flour, water and blue vitriol. TCB's sheet of 15 September 2026 puts loose maida at Tk 65-70 a kg. The price of blue vitriol could not be verified.Starting stock
  • Trade licence from the municipality, union parishad or city corporation: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, non-judicial stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Normally issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
  • Folding fast and to the same size by hand. Women are the more skilled at it: Kagzipara once had more than a thousand women in the trade.Skill
  • Paper wholesalers at Becharam Dewri and Moulvibazar in Dhaka for khaki, Nimtoli for white paper, and Mitford for the special pharmacy bags.Supplier
  • A work room and open ground to dry in the sun; at Kagzipara the bags dry on the madrasa field. Without covered space in the monsoon a whole batch can be lost.Workspace

How the work runs

  1. 1Decide which bag you make. Khaki bags hold 2 to 20 kg depending on size and sell at Tk 135-140 a kg; white paper bags hold 250 g to 5 kg and sell at Tk 80. Khaki pays better but the raw material costs more.
  2. 2Fix the raw material. Khaki paper comes from 25 kg powdered milk packets at Tk 18-20 a piece with five or six to the kilo, and the wholesalers sit at Moulvibazar and Becharam Dewri in Dhaka. White paper comes from exam scripts and office waste bought by the kilo at Nimtoli.
  3. 3Do not plan on new paper. TCB's sheet of 15 September 2026 puts white writing paper at Tk 34-40 per dista, and bags made from that cannot be sold at Tk 80 a kg. This trade runs on waste paper.
  4. 4Open the packets, separate each layer and cut to size. Milk powder packets are made of two or three layers of paper.
  5. 5Make the glue from flour, water and blue vitriol. The bitter taste keeps rats and cockroaches away from the stock.
  6. 6Put the bags out in the sun the moment the glue is on. Leave them and mould sets in, and in the monsoon you watch the sky all day. Fix the open drying space first.
  7. 7Work in batches. Sixty kilos of paper makes 70 kg of bags with the glue. Paper Tk 6,000 plus Tk 1,500 of labour, transport and sundries is Tk 7,500; 70 kg at Tk 140 brings Tk 9,800 and leaves Tk 2,300.
  8. 8Line up the buyers: spice shops, fruit sellers, dal and sugar grocers, puri and singara stalls, peanut and jhalmuri vans and pharmacies. Every spice shop at Dhaka's Moulvibazar uses khaki bags, and so does virtually every pharmacy.
  9. 9Sell small bags in bundles. Bundles of 500 or 1,000 pieces go at Tk 150-230, which is how grocers and hotels are used to buying.
  10. 10Plan the money around the season. The peak is March to June, four months, and those four months have to carry twelve, because the rest of the year runs at break-even or a little worse.
  11. 11Go regularly to a fixed handful of markets. Nazrul Kazi now supplies Moulvibazar, Kaptanbazar and Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, and Digbabu Bazar and Nitaiganj in Narayanganj also take bags well.
  12. 12Do not cheat on weight. A hardboard base lets the shopkeeper hide 50-70 grams, and the bad name ends up attached to paper bags themselves. Keep the base light and customers stay with them.

Seasons

  1. JanLow
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarHigh
  4. AprHigh
  5. MayHigh
  6. JunHigh
  7. JulLow
  8. AugLow
  9. SepLow
  10. OctLow
  11. NovLow
  12. DecLow
HighNormalLow

Where it fits

  • Strong fitDhaka · Every spice shop at Moulvibazar uses khaki bags and Kaptanbazar and Karwan Bazar take regular supply; the raw material is at Becharam Dewri and Nimtoli, and pharmacy bags come from Mitford.
  • Strong fitMunshiganj · Kagzipara (South Nagar Kosba) in Mirkadim municipality is a paper-bag quarter more than a century old, with eight wholesale white-bag shops at Mastanbazar ten minutes away. It supplies the bag demand of the Dhaka and Narayanganj markets.
  • Strong fitNarayanganj · Digbabu Bazar and Nitaiganj take bags well, and Kagzipara in Munshiganj is close by.
  • PossibleChattogram · A bag-making area, with demand from the port city's spice and dried fish shops.
  • PossibleJashore · One of the older bag-making areas, selling into its own local market.
  • PossibleKhulna · Another bag-making area, with the town's grocers and sweet shops as the main buyers.
  • PossibleKishoreganj · Maunds of bags used to go to Bhairab bazar on market days; a big mokam with no shortage of buyers.
  • PossibleNarsingdi · Bags used to go here regularly from Kagzipara, with the big Madhabdi-Baburhat market nearby.
  • PossibleRajshahi · A bag-making area where demand rises in the mango and fruit season.
  • Weak fitBogura · A large market, but as of 11 September 2026 polythene was still selling freely here, and with no enforcement the demand for paper bags stays suppressed.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDemand: Polythene is banned and the ban has stayed on paper. A report of 11 September 2026 describes polythene selling freely in Bogura's markets, towns and villages, with a Department of Environment officer admitting the law is not enforced. Paper bags cost two to three times more and take longer to fill. The result: Kagzipara once had 550 of its 600 families in this work and now has 30 to 35.
  • HighWorking capital: The peak is March to June, four months. By Nazrul Kazi's account those four months yield about Tk 400,000 of profit which has to carry twelve, because the rest of the year breaks even or costs a little more than it brings. Spend the season's profit and there is no money to buy paper for the next one.
  • HighDependency: You do not control the raw material; it is somebody else's waste. Cement once came in six-layer paper sacks and those were the main source of khaki paper. Cement sacks are no longer paper, so the trade now leans on powdered milk packets - and the day those go plastic, the raw material goes with them.
  • MediumSpoilage: If the bags are not put in the sun soon after gluing, mould sets in. Drying in the monsoon is a running battle with the sky, and one sudden shower can take out a whole batch, about Tk 7,500 of material.
  • MediumOther: The margin is thin and the people in the trade know it. Nazrul Kazi says that under Tk 40 of profit per kilo the household cannot be run, while his own batch figures work out to about Tk 33. A small rise in paper cost or a small fall in the selling rate takes the profit to nothing.

Sources

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