North Carolina grants $25 million to rebuild western recycling systems

Western North Carolina’s storm-battered recycling and waste systems are getting a $25 million rebuild, with Buncombe County and Black Mountain among the local winners in a state recovery round meant to make cleanup systems harder to break the next time disaster hits.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality announced the grants on June 2, awarding money to 16 projects across the region through its Helene Recovery Recycling Infrastructure program. Buncombe County received $3.5 million to build construction-and-demolition waste diversion infrastructure and increase revenue from those materials, while the Town of Black Mountain got $525,000 to rebuild key curbside sanitation infrastructure and collect more recyclables with greater long-term resiliency.

State officials said the program is aimed at restoring and strengthening recycling, composting and debris-management systems damaged or strained by Hurricane Helene. The money can be used for infrastructure, facilities, equipment and related planning, a shift that matters in practical terms for Asheville-area households that have dealt with overloaded disposal systems, storm debris and interrupted collection service since the September 2024 flood and landslide disaster.

The demand was far larger than the pot of money available. The Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service received 45 applications totaling $145 million, leaving nearly $100 million in unmet needs after local matching funds are counted. No additional application round is planned, because the full $25 million is expected to be awarded from the current program.

For Buncombe County, the grants land alongside a broader Helene recovery effort that has already pushed local government deep into debris removal and long-term planning. County officials say Helene caused devastating flooding, landslides and damage across the county, and Buncombe County and its six municipal partners developed a Helene Recovery Plan with 114 projects after hearing from more than 2,600 residents in 28 in-person events across 13 zip codes.

That recovery work is already visible in the debris totals. Buncombe County says right-of-way debris removal was completed in April 2025 with 1,012,201 cubic yards removed, waterway debris removal took out 1,291,767 cubic yards from major waterways, and private-property cleanup covered 4,774 parcels in Buncombe County and the City of Asheville. The county says debris management remains focused on public and private property, waterways, hazardous materials and sustainable reuse. For Asheville and Black Mountain, the new grants are a step toward more reliable pickup, better recycling access and a system less likely to buckle under the next storm.