San Francisco residents continue to recycle their refuse better than anyone, anytime and anywhere in the country, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

Not that it’s by choice, but San Francisco “achieved 77 percent landfill diversion rates, surpassing the goal of 75 percent landfill diversion by 2010 and setting national recycling rate records, the highest of any city in the United States,” according to the Mayor’s Office.

“The figures compiled by the City’s Environment Department for 2008 show that San Francisco diverted just over 1.6 million tons of material — double the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge — through recycling, composting and re-use. Of this only 560,000 tons went to landfill, the lowest disposal on record.”

Last year, Newsom announced that The City was at a 72 percent rate for recycling as he toured a recycling plant run by Recology.

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