SERIES 34 | Episode 06
Peg Davies is a waste mitigation and reuse expert, living and working in the central suburbs of Perth. She has been educating the wider community about waste for over 15 years, running workshops with businesses and schools. Peg is obsessed with sharing ways to live while being creative and frugal, to ensure that nothing is wasted, and that no one goes without.
‘My passions have always been rubbish and sewerage. I mean, talking rubbish and getting paid for it, what could be better?... I can’t do that hippie thing of going to the country, having a wonderful lifestyle there, living off the grid and growing my own food totally, when there are so many people in the city that haven’t got that option! So how can we make cities better for people who have no choice?’
Her mantra is, ‘an empty bin is a good bin. Let’s be responsible, keep stuff out of it and use what we got.’
Around Peg’s garden, you can see the principles of nothing going to waste. The gardens are very productive, with vegies growing in wicking beds made of old bathtubs, foam boxes, worm boxes, or recycling boxes. Everything is grown with homemade compost and mulched with clippings sourced from council landscaping services. Her home garden is stuffed with rambling plants, recycled materials, and compost bins. She has set up heaps of education and training programs, and physical spaces where people can come together to practice this idea in person, like Earthwise in Subiaco.
Peg reflects on her childhood, growing up in regional Victoria in a house built by her parents. They had no running water, and resources had to be used extremely wisely. This mindset was normal, in comparison to the excessive use of resources in a modern city. She grew up appreciating the bush and studied biochemistry at university. She met her husband, George Davies, when they were both youth workers. She and George joined in alliance to take over a vacant church building, creating an op shop that would later turn into Earthwise.
They painted the church a joyful pink colour and began to take over the whole building and gardens. Inside, there is an op shop and food collection hub, where food, clothing and other items are collected to redistribute for the community.
Surrounding the church are sprawling gardens, and you can’t miss the eccentric art pieces that have been fashioned from scrap materials, really creating a unique and welcoming vibe. There is a glittering turquoise and silver dragon, a huge blue dragonfly perched upon a compost bin, kooky robots made of rusted car parts, and signs warning, ‘beware of crocodile’. ‘There’s no such thing as waste, just resources being wasted.’ There is so much good stuff out there for free. Earthwise are flooded with donations and have the creativity to turn waste into useful materials, find homes for it with community members.
Peg is open to anyone, no matter where they are in their sustainability journey. ‘Not everyone may be up for reducing their waste, but they are coming in where it fits for them. We have to listen to where people are up to and acknowledge where they are on their journey—they may be way down the track or just beginning. At Earthwise, we can touch people anywhere in their journey, to meet them where they are.’
Featured Plants | |
|---|---|
CELERY | Apium graveolens cv. |
GRAPE | Vitis cv. |
Filmed on Whadjuk Country | Perth, WA