Despite the city’s largest recycling drop-off center being closed for six months, Lawrence still found a way to recycle at above average rates in 2005.

A new city report Friday showed a 33 percent recycling rate in 2005, down 1 percent from the previous year. But Bob Yoos, the city’s sold waste division manager, said he thought that was a real accomplishment given that the popular Wal-Mart Recycling Center was closed six months for construction.

“I think that is a really good number,” Yoos said. “I think it shows that a lot of people figured out alternatives, and that is encouraging.”

The 33 percent rate was better than the 23 percent statewide average and better than the national average of 30.4 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Wal-Mart center reopened in December, and resident Troy Bassett was there Friday.

“We recycle because we love the earth,” Bassett said of himself and other Lawrencians. “We want to take care of it, and we have just gotten in the habit of doing it.”

Yoos said he’s looking for new ways to boost participation in city-sponsored programs and is talking with the Lawrence school district about a new program to allow staff members and students to begin recycling notebook and office paper at most, if not all, schools.