Two newsworthy tidbits in the last couple of months have intrigued me, and I'm sure they have intrigued you, too. Believe it or not, I will show an actual link between them.
Greyhounds (as in the bus, not the dog): The Greyhound bus line that has serviced hamlets, villages, towns , cities, and points in between, all over Canada for years, is shutting down permanently within months. That will create a difficult situation for those who work for Greyhound and for those who make use of Greyhound.
This shift has been in the works for years, so it's not like no one saw it coming.
The situation is serious, when I think of those "employed" by Greyhound and those who have "enjoyed" Greyhound. Losing one's job is no joke; I have experienced it myself. And losing one's access to a necessary transportation service is nothing short of a disaster, especially when there is no obvious replacement in the works.
There are replacement ideas floating around, but nothing is in concrete yet. Ideas are necessary, but these ideas need wheels. The opportunity is there, to be sure, but someone needs to rise to the occasion.
Greyhound had noticed that there are changing ridership patterns over the years, and thus they were losing money, big time. That makes sense to me, in a free enterprise context. After all, it's a business, not a charity. I suggest they should have cut down the routes, just not cut them out.
Plastic Straws. This commodity is very different from the Greyhound dilemma. In short, there is a groundswell movement to ban plastic straws from eateries.
I get it that plastic straws are the latest environmental demon, just like plastic bags were before them. I get it that they don't break down like, say, paper, and that they have filled both landfills and waterways for years. This is pretty clear-cut evidence to the damage hat throwaway plastic can do.
That move appears to be responsible stewardship, though it may not be more than trendy environmentalism. I don't know for sure and maybe no one does. Surely there can be some use for plastic straws than to just simply ban them.
As for Greyhound, there will be some serious layoffs somewhere, including those manufacturing, marketing, and maintaining the buses, in addition to the front line workers. But with those associated with plastic straws, not quite so much.
In either instance, I humbly suggest that, in the true entrepreneurial spirit, here are two gift horses (Maurice: there is no "horse" in the meaning, and "gift" really means "opportunity").
Greyhound is a Canadian institution, with an established client base and proven routes. Some enterprising person could easily move in and re-connect with communities scattered across the nation. Maybe changing the schedule (not so frequent) and the bus style itself (not so huge) would help.
And as for the straws, if the peer pressure is to get rid of all straws over the next few years succeeds, I suggest we consider creative recycling. Surely someone can come up with a product that has plastic straws as a component. Dropping them off at the local recycling depot and getting them converted them into something productive would be a good place to start.
If used tires can be converted into playground padding, surely straws can be transformed into insulation, piping, siding, window frames, and such. Plastic has so many positive uses.
Either way, the death of one vision can be the birth of a new one. That's the spirit of free enterprise and that's how we need to react to these latest challenges
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