Waste not

July 19, 2003

By SUSAN SMALLHEER Southern Vermont Bureau

Lisa Farino and Peter Luyckx want to help save the world — even if it’s a penny at a time.

The Brattleboro couple have started an environmental magazine, The Frugal Environmentalist, that advocates practical, commonsense solutions — with a healthy dose of humor — about how to live lightly on the planet.

“Because being green doesn’t have to be expensive,” is their motto.

They say the quarterly magazine is neither preachy nor self-righteous, which environmentalists are often accused of being. The question they ask is, “Are there cheaper alternatives that help protect the environment?”

It could mean something as simple as buying local organic Bartlett pears instead of organic mangoes probably flown to Vermont in an inorganic jet plane, Farino says.

Or using old newspapers and a $10 chimney starter, instead of expensive and polluting charcoal lighter fluid.

Or using old peanut butter jars for drinking glasses, instead of throwing the jars away or buying new glasses. (If you keep the lid, it makes a great traveling mug, she adds.)

Or using those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags for trash instead of buying expensive, recycled plastic garbage bags, Luyckx says.

It is not about being perfect, he stresses during a recent interview in a Brattleboro coffee shop. It’s about doing what you can, within your means.

Farino, who grew up in Connecticut and has degrees in biology and professional writing, talks a blue — maybe green — streak. Her husband, a native of Belgium who speaks perfect, softly-accented English, has degrees in English and Dutch linguistics from Catholic University Leuven. He handles the magazine’s marketing and publicity.

The couple met at a youth hostel in Budapest seven years ago; she was in the bunk above his in the coed dormitory.

“I asked her if she were Polish,” Luyckx says. “She went out to dinner and ignored me. So much for my pickup line.”

They later met over breakfast, brought together by a mutual love of Czech literature. They were married within the year. They launched The Frugal Environmentalist magazine last winter as their personal effort against the Bush Administration’s war on Iraq .

Born of war

For Farino, 33, and Luyckx, 32, the war was about “natural resources” — oil.

So, they decided that the best way to lessen the demand for oil, and war, was to reduce America ’s dependence on oil.

Farino and Luyckx moved to Brattleboro during the summer of 2002, after looking for a community-minded place to live and work. They took a second-floor apartment on a leafy street in downtown Brattleboro . They have one car, a Toyota Corolla, they ride bicycles and live close enough to Main Street to walk practically everywhere.

But that hot, dry summer triggered their asthma problems; Farino in particular was laid low by smog levels. So she found herself inside the apartment thinking of ways to make a difference.

Farino, a professional writer and editor, and Luyckx, who worked for a technology company outside Boston and telecommuted, decided a magazine or newsletter was what they could do.

The 20-page magazine accepts no advertising and it is full of articles and tips like “Make Your Own Bug Spray,” “Drop Drain Cleaner Forever,” “Please Take Your Shoes Off,” and the myth-busting “It is now safe to turn off your computer.” (If you are leaving your post-1990 computer idle for more than 15 to 20 minutes, turn it off and save electricity and money. It’s safe and won’t hurt the machine.)

The summer issue of The Frugal Environmentalist features an article about low-cost and low-impact computing, which includes some of Farino’s research into electrical uses of various computer components, and where to buy a “green” computer. (That’s not an oxymoron.)

Future issues will include articles about a favorite target of environmentalists (sport utility vehicles), how to purchase a car and how to cut your food bill while still eating organic.

The Frugal Environmentalist has published two issues so far, and costs $4.95 on the newsstand, with discounted annual subscriptions still in effect. Bookstores and newsstands in Vermont , Massachusetts and New Hampshire are stocking it, as well as locations as far away as Oregon .

While the magazine has about 350 subscribers, neither Farino and Luyckx have any delusions that the magazine will support them. Luyckx, who was laid off by his dot.com employer last year, now works for the Brattleboro Housing Authority. Farino until recently worked for adult basic education and is looking for new work.

‘Glass-Jar Chic’

In the first issue, the couple championed what the magazine called, tongue-in-cheek, “Glass-Jar Chic.”

Farino said this tip came from her father, who had complained that restaurant portions were getting bigger and bigger, with most people leaving their leftovers at the restaurant. The take-home, take-out containers often leaked, making a mess in your car.

The solution?

Keep a bag of clean glass jars in the car and use them for restaurant leftovers.

“Worried about looking silly?” Farino wrote. “Don’t be. The waitress will be just as happy not to have to pack up your leftovers for you, and everyone else will be too busy eating and socializing to care about your containers. And if anyone does notice, great! You can take credit for starting the movement of glass-jar chic.”

The magazine doesn’t include stories about what they call “the politics of environmentalism,” nor will it have stories detailing environmental problems. Those stories can be found in other publications, they said.

“The Frugal Environmentalist will focus almost exclusively on solutions,” Luyckx promised in the first issue.

The couple have also started what they are calling “The First Annual Brattleboro Environmental Film Festival,” which will run during two successive weekends in October at the Hooker-Dunham Theater in downtown Brattleboro .

They have already rented the theater a few times and screened movies. One documentary, “Blue Vinyl,” about the American phenomena of vinyl siding, was sold out, Luyckx says.

“They call it a toxic comedy,” he says.

“We just screened ‘This is Nowhere,’” Farino says. “It’s about retirees who travel in RV’s, camping out in the parking lot of Wal-Mart. It’s so wacky. It’s a funny movie but with cultural commentary.”

In conjunction with the fall film festival, the couple is lining up an alternative building fair and an alternative healing fair.

“The lower the barrier is for people, the better,” Luyckx says. “People believe 100 percent this or 100 percent that; the image of the environmentalist is ‘picture perfect.’ But that creates a big barrier. What we are trying to do is encourage people to make small changes. Some things in an article, maybe you can only do two or three, but you could keep adding things. So it’s not a matter of being perfect.”

Farino adds, “We’re trying to shatter the idea that everything that you can do for the environment is expensive. We’re not going to save the environment by buying organic juice boxes.”

Farino and Luyckx can be reached at frugalgreen.com.

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.