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Recent research has indicated high economic and environmental costs of human paper usage. Technologies have been developed to reduce consumers' paper use behavior, including mechanical dispensers that institute a delay between opportunities to obtain each consecutive unit. However, there is no empirical evidence that these dispensers or delays reduce paper use. In Experiment 1, implementing a delay between paper-unit deliveries using mechanical dispensers in a university cafe resulted in a significant decrease in units per person, material per person, and cost per person, compared to free-access dispensers. In Experiment 2, a relatively long delay was more effective than a short delay in reducing paper consumption in a laboratory experiment using mechanical dispensers. These results indicate that delays could be used to decrease paper use in many contexts on a larger scale. More research is necessary to determine the underlying behavioral mechanisms responsible for the observed reduction and the cost-benefit relationship under different circumstances. Keywords Reinforcement delays * Paper dispensers * Sustainability * Climate change * Behavioral nudges, Sustainability is rooted in human behavior, which is controlled by variables that can be manipulated (Baum, 2005; Skinner, 1953; Ylek & Steg, 2007). Verbal strategies (e.g., requests, education, information) to [...]