Okanagan College
SustainOC Newsletter
October 2026 · Issue

Fix First,
Buy Last.

Five ways to get more life out of what you already own, and where to take whatever is genuinely finished.

RepairReuseCircular economyWaste Reduction WeekWater
In this issue
  • 1Fix It Before You Replace It
  • 2Borrow It, Do Not Buy It
  • 3Give Your Electronics a Second Life
  • 4Rethink the Textile Pile
  • 5Close the Loop on Food
Close-up of a pair of hands stitching a worn leather boot with a needle and waxed thread on a wooden workbench, with dry Okanagan grassland through the window behind
Image: AI-generated
Waste Reduction
Week 3
of October
Water Alert

The restrictions are staying on this autumn.

Greater Vernon is holding Stage 3 and Kelowna remains at Stage 2, even after the rain arrived and after the community met its conservation targets for the season. Both Greater Vernon sources sit well below historic averages, and reserves are being held back because the forecast points at more of the same in 2027. Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Salmon Arm all draw on the same strained basin.

Kelowna restriction stageStage 2 of 4
Kelowna runs Normal, then Stages 1 to 4 · checked September 21, 2026
Stage 3
Greater Vernon, staying in place through the autumn.
20%
The reduction Stage 2 is designed to achieve in Kelowna.
Check the current stage →
A dried, cracked lakebed in the foreground with the shoreline receded far back toward pale dry hills under an overcast autumn sky
Image: AI-generated
134,835 t
Average waste buried at Glenmore each year
42%
Of what arrives there is diverted instead
30
Library branches lending more than books

From the Sustainability Office

October is Circular Economy Month, which is a grand name for a plain question: does this actually need replacing? Most of the time the answer is no. The whole month is built around the handful of habits that follow from taking that question seriously.

This issue is deliberately not about sorting. September covered which box things go in. October is about the step before the box: keeping things out of one for as long as possible. Repair, borrowing, second-hand, and the one local waste stream that genuinely comes back to us as something useful.

One change to flag. We are moving how we keep in touch. Instead of a mailing list, there will be a Microsoft Teams group, which gives us somewhere to share resources, events and questions between issues, and puts you in the same room as other people across the four campuses who care about this. There is a note further down, and the short version is that it takes one form and we do the rest. Here are five things worth doing this month.

The Okanagan College Sustainability Team

5 Actions for October

What we can do, right now, across all four campuses.

1

Fix It Before You Replace It

Most things that break are not finished, they are just broken. A repair is almost always cheaper than a replacement, and it is always lighter on the valley.

  • →Search the model number and the fault first.
  • →Check the warranty before you buy anything new.
  • →Ask a repair shop for a quote, not an opinion.
  • →Keep one small toolkit somewhere you can reach it.
Local Tip

Glenmore Landfill buries an average of 134,835 tonnes a year and diverts 42 per cent of what arrives. The cheapest tonne is the one that never turns up.

2

Borrow It, Do Not Buy It

If you need a thing once, you need the thing, not the ownership. Your library lends a great deal more than books now.

  • →Get a library card, it is free and takes one visit.
  • →Borrow a kit instead of buying for one project.
  • →Ask a neighbour before you order a tool.
  • →Return it on time so the next person gets it.
Local Tip

Okanagan Regional Library runs 30 branches serving about 399,000 people, Kelowna, Vernon and Salmon Arm among them. Library of Things kits go out for four weeks. Penticton has its own public library.

3

Give Your Electronics a Second Life

Old phones and laptops hold metals worth recovering and data worth wiping. Neither of those things happens in a landfill.

  • →Wipe the device and sign out of every account.
  • →Pass working gear to someone who needs it.
  • →Take dead electronics to a take-back depot.
  • →Never put batteries in curbside recycling.
Local Tip

Electronics and small appliances are covered by a provincial take-back program, so depots across the Central Okanagan accept them at no charge. The Regional District lists drop-off points by community.

4

Rethink the Textile Pile

Clothing is the waste stream with the fewest good endings. Keeping a garment in use beats every other option by a distance.

  • →Mend a seam or a button before binning it.
  • →Swap with friends instead of buying new.
  • →Donate wearable clothes to a charity shop.
  • →Buy second-hand first for one purchase this month.
Local Tip

Textiles are not on the Central Okanagan curbside recycling list, so there is no blue-bin route for them. Keeping clothes in use is the option that reliably works.

5

Close the Loop on Food

Food is the heaviest thing most households throw away, and locally it is one of the few streams that genuinely comes back as something useful.

  • →Plan meals around what is already in the fridge.
  • →Store herbs and greens properly so they last.
  • →Put food scraps in the organics cart, not the bin.
  • →Freeze leftovers you will not get to in time.
Local Tip

Organics collected in Kelowna are composted into GlenGrow, a soil conditioner sold back to residents, and clean lumber is traded for hog fuel used in OgoGrow. The loop is real and it is local.

OCTOBER CHALLENGE

One Action This Month: Fix One Thing

Pick one broken or worn-out thing you own and deal with it properly before the month is out. Mend it, repair it, or book it in with someone who can. One object, one month, and it stays useful for years instead of going in a skip.

  • →Pick the thing that has been sitting there
  • →Look up the fault before you give up on it
  • →Mend, glue or sew it yourself if you can
  • →Or book it in with somebody who can
Take the pledge →

From September

The Power Down Pledge has its winners

At Student Orientation Day on September 8, students took the Power Down Pledge and committed to three energy-saving actions each. Three names were drawn, and every winner receives a 50 dollar gift card good at the Campus Bookstore and the Campus Cafeteria.

Congratulations to Ky Ralston and Lisa Bibby, and to our third winner. Three actions each sounds like a small thing. Across a campus full of students, it is not. Thank you to everyone who signed up.

3
Winners drawn
at Orientation

Local & BC Sustainability Updates

Illustration of a low Okanagan lake shoreline with exposed banks under an autumn sun

Water Restrictions Are Staying On

Greater Vernon is holding Stage 3 and Kelowna remains at Stage 2, even after autumn rain and after the community met its conservation targets. Both Greater Vernon sources sit well below historic averages, and reserves are being kept back with 2027 in mind.

Illustration: SustainOC

Read more →
Illustration of three curbside recycling boxes side by side in pink, grey and blue

October Is Circular Economy Month

The national campaign runs all month, with Waste Reduction Week in the third week. The Recycling Council of British Columbia hosts the BC side, and the themes run through repair, textiles, electronics, food waste and the sharing economy.

Illustration: SustainOC

See the campaign →
Illustration of a stack of books marked with a green tick

Your Library Card Lends Tools, Not Just Books

Okanagan Regional Library's Library of Things lends air quality monitors, radon detectors, robotics kits and birding backpacks on a free card, four weeks at a time, across 30 branches.

Illustration: SustainOC

Browse the kits →

For more up-to-date news, upcoming events, and sustainability initiatives, please visit:

www.okanagancollege.ca/sustainability
Scan to visit okanagancollege.ca/sustainability
Scan me

Vaibhav Patel (Energy Specialist)

vpatel@okanagan.bc.ca

Campus Planning & Facilities Management,
Okanagan College | Kelowna Campus

Rob St. Onge (Sustainability Manager)

rstonge@okanagan.bc.ca

Campus Planning & Facilities Management,
Okanagan College | Kelowna Campus

Department enquiries: sustainoc@okanagan.bc.ca

We are moving to Teams
A mailing list can only ever send. A Microsoft Teams group lets us share resources and events between issues, answer questions as they come up, and put you in touch with people across all four campuses who care about this too. Add your details once and we will send you an invitation. Nothing else changes, and you can leave whenever you like.
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Okanagan College SustainOC Newsletter · October 2026