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Monday, October 6th, 2008
Commingled
I learned a new word this week - commingled. I'm always trying to learn new words and I consider my vocabulary decent if not great but I have to admit this is a new one. I looked it up on Wikipedia to make sure I understood it.
Commingling literally means "mixing together". Used in a legal context it is a breach of trust in which a fiduciary mixes funds that he holds in the care of a client with his own funds, making it difficult to determine which funds belong to the fiduciary and which belong to the client. This raises particular concerns where the funds are invested, and gains or losses from the investments must be allocated. In such circumstances, the law usually presumes that any gains run to the client and any losses run to the fiduciary who is guilty of commingling.
Considering my easy confusion over things which are money-related, insurance-related and tax-related, maybe I can understand why I haven't been exposed to this word in the past. Interestingly enough, my exposure to the word has nothing to do with money--it has to do with trash.
Recyclables to be precise. My waste management service (PC for garbage collector) has moved our recycling service to commingled recycling. We got this fancy new (and clean!) recycling container (recycled plastic itself!) and a flyer to explain what can be commingled and what cannot; what can be recycled and what cannot. Waste management day (I can learn to be PC!) is tomorrow so I was reviewing the list and determining what I can now "commingle" and what I can't and what is and isn't allowed for recycling.
I was prompted to blog about this turn of events because of one item on the "NO" list - cross-cut shredded paper. I think it is fascinating that we are encouraged to shred documents and, up until I started commingling, I had formerly put out for recycling. We also have professional shredding companies who like to prompt shredding for identity theft and (I thought) to promote recycling. Apparently not. Bizarrely to me, the problem is the paper is cut too small to make new paper.
Now, I'm not a paper-maker but I thought paper was shredded and then pressed back together to make recycled-type paper for us green-conscious types. Now I discover they can only make new paper from big enough pieces of paper. How does that work? Does someone sit in the back and glue the big pieces of paper back together? I'm still wrapping my mind about the "how" but my recycling mentality is reeling over the quandary of being responsible and shredding confidential documents or risking them being commingled to keep them recyclable.
Commingled
I learned a new word this week - commingled. I'm always trying to learn new words and I consider my vocabulary decent if not great but I have to admit this is a new one. I looked it up on Wikipedia to make sure I understood it.
Commingling literally means "mixing together". Used in a legal context it is a breach of trust in which a fiduciary mixes funds that he holds in the care of a client with his own funds, making it difficult to determine which funds belong to the fiduciary and which belong to the client. This raises particular concerns where the funds are invested, and gains or losses from the investments must be allocated. In such circumstances, the law usually presumes that any gains run to the client and any losses run to the fiduciary who is guilty of commingling.
Considering my easy confusion over things which are money-related, insurance-related and tax-related, maybe I can understand why I haven't been exposed to this word in the past. Interestingly enough, my exposure to the word has nothing to do with money--it has to do with trash.
Recyclables to be precise. My waste management service (PC for garbage collector) has moved our recycling service to commingled recycling. We got this fancy new (and clean!) recycling container (recycled plastic itself!) and a flyer to explain what can be commingled and what cannot; what can be recycled and what cannot. Waste management day (I can learn to be PC!) is tomorrow so I was reviewing the list and determining what I can now "commingle" and what I can't and what is and isn't allowed for recycling.
I was prompted to blog about this turn of events because of one item on the "NO" list - cross-cut shredded paper. I think it is fascinating that we are encouraged to shred documents and, up until I started commingling, I had formerly put out for recycling. We also have professional shredding companies who like to prompt shredding for identity theft and (I thought) to promote recycling. Apparently not. Bizarrely to me, the problem is the paper is cut too small to make new paper.
Now, I'm not a paper-maker but I thought paper was shredded and then pressed back together to make recycled-type paper for us green-conscious types. Now I discover they can only make new paper from big enough pieces of paper. How does that work? Does someone sit in the back and glue the big pieces of paper back together? I'm still wrapping my mind about the "how" but my recycling mentality is reeling over the quandary of being responsible and shredding confidential documents or risking them being commingled to keep them recyclable.
Bean, from what you describe I don't see why cross-cut strips wouldn't work. Seems to me the recyclers and the protectors need to get together and work out a consensus of how we can protect ourselves best AND recycle too. :)