New 24-hour food-scraps drop-off opens at North Asheville Community Center

A new 24-hour food-scrap drop-off opened at the North Asheville Community Center, 37 E. Larchmont Road, city and county officials announced March 5, 2026. The site joins the joint City of Asheville and Buncombe County residential food-scraps drop-off program and is described as the ninth publicly accessible drop-off location in that joint program, according to the city.

The North Asheville site is equipped with Bearicade Bins designed to prevent wildlife from accessing contents, and 24-hour access is explicitly available at this location. Residents who want access to the drop-off network must register online via the city’s composting program page; WLOS reports registered participants receive a free kitchen composting bucket to transport scraps to collection points.

The composting program launched in 2022 as a City of Asheville and Buncombe County partnership. The city’s announcement described the program as having diverted more than 1.5 million pounds of food waste from local landfills since launch. Separately, WLOS reports that 160 tons of food scraps have been diverted and that 2,300 households have registered to participate; the two sets of diversion figures reflect different totals reported by the city and by WLOS.

WLOS also lists planned expansion at library locations: the Leicester and East Asheville libraries are described as the two newest program locations and are expected to open later this month, WLOS reports. WLOS notes that “each drop-off has its own hours and process,” a distinction that aligns with the North Asheville site’s round-the-clock availability stated by 828newsNOW.

Alex Miller, Asheville waste reduction manager, framed the program’s environmental goals in WLOS coverage: “We’re trying to help decrease the greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, coming from the landfill by keeping those food scraps out of the landfill, as well as saving that landfill space because once it’s gone, it’s gone.” The program’s stated aims are to reduce methane emissions from landfills and conserve landfill capacity as food-scrap diversion expands.

Operational details published with the announcement emphasize site-level differences: while North Asheville is open 24 hours, other drop-off locations may operate on different schedules and follow distinct procedures. Residents seeking to use the North Asheville drop-off should register through the city’s composting program page to receive site access and the complimentary kitchen bucket. City and county officials presented the North Asheville opening as the latest step in a multi-site expansion of the joint free composting program.