{"id":85438,"date":"2025-08-15T18:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85438\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T18:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T18:59:08","slug":"whats-up-with-the-trailers-at-revol-church-in-north-asheville-why-so-much-wet-cardboard-at-the-curbie-recycling-plant-asheville-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/85438\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s up with the trailers at Revol Church in north Asheville? Why so much wet cardboard at the Curbie recycling plant? \u2022 Asheville Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Question: What are the unoccupied motor homes doing in the grassy field across from Revol Church on Beaverdam Road? This is the second batch of such motor vehicles. They seem to sit there for months. Thanks for looking into this mystery.<\/p>\n

My answer: What are they doing there? Waiting for someone to offer $3,500 a month to rent them.<\/p>\n

Real answer: These homes are part of the mission of the Asheville Dream Center, a nonprofit that offers a variety of services and programs to those in need, including providing temporary homes and rebuilding houses for victims of Tropical Storm Helene. The Dream Center is a separate entity from Revol Church, but the church has allowed the Dream Center to store homes there post-Helene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church has been gracious to us, and we partner with about 27 churches in the city,\u201d said Paul Benjamin, a Dream Center board member. \u201cAnd we\u2019re constantly doing things to impact the community. We find a need and try to fill it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Helene, that was badly needed housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past ten months, the Asheville Dream Center has had the privilege of supporting 22 families with temporary housing after they lost everything in the hurricane,\u201d the Dream Center said in a media statement. \u201cAs part of our emergency response, the Asheville Dream Center utilized RVs as a practical solution to provide shelter for displaced families in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six recreational vehicles remained parked on the field next to the church, as of early August.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese units are not in active use at this time but remain on-site as part of our extended Hurricane Helene relief operations,\u201d the center stated. \u201cRevol Church, owner of the property, has been in close communication with the City of Asheville, which has granted permission for these RVs to remain in place until October 2025, in alignment with the city\u2019s extended disaster relief timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dream Center is currently working on three homes in the Barnardsville community, and it has helped complete four home rebuilds in western North Carolina. The nonprofit has helped \u201cclean, clear, and muck out or landscape a dozen homes and properties,\u201d according to its statement.<\/p>\n

Benjamin said the organization provides the homes for free to families in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just used until they get housing, and the units come back to us,\u201d Benjamin said. \u201cSo these units were already being used, and now we\u2019re just looking for the next families that have a need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin and the Dream Center say they understand that neighbors may have concerns about empty homes being on or near the church site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can understand the concerns of our neighbors in the community who are seeing these RVs parked on the Revol property,\u201d the group\u2019s statement said. \u201cEvery effort is being made to quickly place these units with deserving families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Question: For the second week in a row, I\u2019ve found piles of cardboard at the Curbie cardboard recycle center in Woodfin. All of it is saturated with rain. That means it isn\u2019t recyclable now, right? There was a bulldozer waiting for me to finish adding my layer to the heap. I had driven around for a week with a load of cardboard hoping the two absent Dumpsters would return but found they had not by this morning. What\u2019s up?<\/p>\n

My answer: I\u2019ve got to think that nonstop driving for a week with a load of cardboard probably wasn\u2019t great for the environment, either, but I do appreciate your determination.<\/p>\n

Real answer: This is a situation that looks worse than it is.<\/p>\n

\"\"A reader wants to know if cardboard that has piled up at the Curbside Recycling facility in Woodfin is now ruined or still recyclable. The company president says it\u2019s piled up because a truck used for the pickups is out of commission. \/\/ Provided photo<\/p>\n

\u201cOur truck that normally empties these Dumpsters has been down and in the shop being fixed,\u201d Abe Lawson, president of Curbside Management, the area\u2019s primary recycling entity, told me via email. \u201cWe have a sign up for residents to drop cardboard between the Dumpsters on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the piled-up, soggy cardboard looks bad, it\u2019s still usable.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the elements does not mean that the cardboard is not recyclable,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cIn fact, we ask residents who have too much cardboard to fit into their 96 gallon cart to stack it neatly (outside) next to the cart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardboard can take a pretty decent soaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wetness only becomes an issue if it is saturated for a prolonged period of time and it starts to break down,\u201d Lawson said Tuesday. \u201cWe are\/have been collecting the cardboard multiple times a day to keep the piles contained and hope to have the truck back up and running very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page<\/a>. Please submit your comments there.<\/p>\n

Asheville Watchdog<\/a> is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog\u2019s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org\/support-our-publication\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: What are the unoccupied motor homes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,59151,2053,6562,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-85438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-helene","10":"tag-housing","11":"tag-recycling","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}