Mia Pitassi returned to Perth after more than two decades away, and was shocked. All around her developed neighbourhood she saw waste everywhere, every single day in every form possible. Waste generated to make people’s lives more convenient for a second before being condemned to a life sentence in land-full.

Pitassi graduated from Edith Cowan University with a degree in Early Childhood Education and went travelling that same weekend. She travelled back and forth between Scotland and the United States, working seasonally at summer camps and celebrating Hogmanay in the Highlands. When she moved to the Canadian mountains near Banff National Park she was so smitten, she became a Canadian citizen.

Pitassi returned to Perth just in time for the global pandemic. It wasn’t the wholesome homecoming she expected. “After 21 years of being away, nothing’s changed here, people are still wasting,” she says. “I would say now, quite confidently, that the one thing I hate more than anything in the world is waste.”

She had become accustomed to the habits of those living alongside her in the Canadian national parks. “I was with good people, they’re all about outdoor lifestyles, healthy lifestyles, healthy eating, looking after nature,” she says.

According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, in 2026 Australians were using 80,000 tones of plastic every week. With about 38 kilograms of plastic packaging waste being generated every second.

Eventually Pitassi found her place back in Perth – if only on Saturday and Sunday mornings. “I thought ‘what am I going to do?’ I want to do something productive and something that makes me happy and farmers markets had the same pull on me,” she says.

Pitassi started going to the Kyilla Farmers’ Market, in North Perth, where a community of people had built their own weekly habits. Habits crafted one way or another to make their lives easier, to support local businesses, or shop more sustainably.

“Everybody at a farmers market, every store there, they grew it themselves, they made it themselves, cooked it themselves. You know they care,” she says. “I really wanted to be around people who were passionate about what they do, I don’t care what you’re passionate about, just be passionate about something.”

She went to workshops and local council education sessions, learning from scratch what sustainable practices look like in suburban communities, and joined groups of people with similar values and interests.

It was then the idea of a liquid refill station started to form. The few zero waste stores in Perth focused on solid food, such as grains, flours and nuts. “If they did have liquids, they didn’t have very many choices, so I picked that as my target,” she says.

She launched Skipping Stones Refillery in 2020, providing bulk liquids, including household products, laundry items and cooking materials to combat single-use packaging. “I just thought instead of moaning about it, maybe I’ll do something,” she says.

Naturally, she chose her place of inspiration, Kyilla Farmers’ Market, to launch her new business.

It was also where she met Roz Collins, the owner and operator of Manning Road Farmers Market. Collins says markets are a great place for people to unwind and enter a community with small businesses that have found their craft.

“If you’re incredibly passionate about refilling, she ticks all the boxes – she’s got 30 household or personal [products],” she says.

However, Pitassi found it was tricky to encourage customers to continue their sustainable habits, given the inconsistent nature of farmers market stalls.

“Education and conversation, that’s nice but unless there’s something nearby that can sustain their good habits, there’s no value,” she says. “I’m in the business of selling behaviour change, which is what project managers do.”

So, Pitassi turned to self-serve vending machines. They are now in the City of Canning, Cockburn, Stirling and Vincent, primarily in public leisure centres or swimming pools. “Is it weird to get laundry liquid when you go for a sauna,” she says. “Sure, but if it’s a positive habit that you can bring your container and gym bag, then I don’t care what your habit is, as long they’re beneficial ones.”

The vending machines operate in a similar manner as Pitassi’s market stall. Users bring their own containers from home, select the liquid they would like, then the machine dispenses it into their container.

Abigail Jones, the coordinator of waste and recycling strategy at City of Vincent, says the popularity of the machine inside Beatty Park Leisure Centre has grown steadily over the year it has been place.

“We’re really excited at the idea of having the vending machine available so that people could access the idea of refilling more regularly,” Jones says.

At the moment, Pitassi has to work elsewhere as a project manager to support her passion but she is hopeful that will change over time and with more awareness. “If we’re going to come up with better ways of protecting the environment, it also has to be financially liable or it falls apart,” she says.

Her business name was inspired by a quote from the late missionary Mother Teresa: “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

Pitassi hopes to motivate people to make small changes that ultimately reduce single-use packing and waste. “It might feel overwhelming that there’s eight billion people doing it differently or wastefully or not caring,” she says. “But you can’t affect them with control, you can only affect them with inspiration.”