Nooksack Valley Disposal & Recycling topped more than 6 million pounds of materials, yard waste and food waste recycled by Whatcom County residents for the second consecutive year in 2012, according to recent numbers released by the company.

Residential customers recycled 2,683,127 pounds of newspaper, mixed paper, cardboard, glass, scrap metal, plastic, aluminum cans and tin cans in 2012, down slightly from the previous year, likely due to economic factors such as smaller newspapers and less consumption. Yet the company’s yard waste/food waste recycling program again rose to 3,384,000 pounds, up 70 tons from 2011.

“With a total from the two programs of 6,067,127 pounds recycled, that means our average household customer recycled 906 pounds last year,” said Calvin Den Hartog, general manager of Nooksack Valley Disposal, in a press release. “Since so many people regularly set out materials to be recycled or bring them to our transfer station, we’re keeping a tremendous amount of material out of landfills.”

Nooksack Valley Disposal, founded by Dan and Steff Leidecker in 1971, serves more than 6,700 residential customers in north Whatcom County, including the communities of Lynden, Everson, Nooksack and Sumas.

The company can be reached at 360-354-3400 or online at www.nvd-inc.com.