Credit crunch could lead to failure of waste and recycling companies.

According to MRW magazine, large waste and recycling companies could be at risk if the Government does not intervene to ensure access to new credit over the next three months. Business lobby group, the CBI, warned that a worsening credit crunch could hit companies following research into businesses’ access to financial credit, published today.

Read the full story here.

Demolition News offers a brief guide to Twitter, the latest online phenomenon.

You will read a lot about Twitter online but the best description I have seen as yet is, quite simply: “…a 140 character text message sent to a selected, willingly-subscribed, global audience instantly that can respond with equal ease”.

In essence, Twitter is a “micro-blog; a website where one or more named individuals can post brief, text message length (140 character) messages. These messages can be seen ONLY be individuals that have chosen to subscribe (follow, in Twitter-speak) that specific post feed. This system, which has been embraced by the likes of Demolition News, Caterpillar, Dig A Crusher and by a huge range of technology and automotive companies, effectively facilitates on online private forum with all direct communications passing through the host of the Twitter feed (be it the marketing manager, the customer service manager, parts manager etc). Not only that but the Twitter feed can be updated on-the-move via mobile phone.

So what does this mean in practice? Aside from the likes of Stephen Fry and Barack Obama (the most “followed” individual on the system), the most effective Twitterers are those that provide meaningful links to further important, meaningful or even entertaining content, not all of which is hosted on a company’s main website. Indeed, many Twitterers use the system to direct their followers to other sites including YouTube and others.

Over a period, the best Twitterers have built a loyal following (almost a fan-club) who follow them and their links and who use the direct message capability to communicate with them directly. Unlike other forms of online communication, however, Twitter does not require nor expect a response to each and every direct message (although those that manage to do this are seen as exceptionally helpful and generous).

Many expert Twitterers also use the system to run “polls” or to call for feedback on specific items. Many of these polls are incentivised in some way (the first 10 respondents will receive a free baseball cap, for example) but the fact is that customers perceive that they are playing an active role in the way in which YOUR company runs its business.

So how could/should you use this fast-growing and increasingly popular system?

Well, if you are a manufacturer or supplier of a product or service, it is worth picturing Twitter as a 140 character flyer to all your most loyal customers. You can tell them about new products/services, keep them informed of special offers and new developments, and get feedback from them on a wide variety of subjects.

If, however, you are a demolition contractor, the chances are that you will be using Twitter to receive rather than send information (although there’s nothing to stop you doing both). But imagine the time-saving benefit of having the latest news from your favourite suppliers delivered directly to your desktop (or, if you are Blackberry or iPhone user, to your mobile phone).

If all of this has convinced you, please visit www.twitter.com and sign up. It’s free and takes about 30 seconds even for the lowest one-finger typist. Once you are signed up, please visit www.twitter.com/demolitionnews and hit the follow button to allow us to deliver the latest news to you, as it happens.

Caterpillar and Dig A Crusher are the latest to join the Twitter revolution.

It takes a forward-thinking company to embrace the latest technology in the fast-paced world of online marketing. So it is pleasing to note that two familiar names from the world of demolition have become the latest to join the Twitter revolution.

Customers and other interested parties can now follow Caterpillar and Dig A Crusher via Twitter to receive the very latest news and information from these two companies instantly.

Given the growth in this online marketing phenomenon, Demolition News will shortly publish a demolition man’s guide to Twitter. Watch this space.

Diamond Drilling specialist, D-Drill Master Drillers was the first drilling contractor to be involved in the Shard London Bridge project. Sub contracted directly by Barhale, the D-Drill team was brought in to help establish the make up of the ground underneath the 28 year old Southwark Tower before demolition work could start.

Operatives trained to work in confined spaces, using breathing apparatus and escape kit, conducted inverted and horizontal drilling at the bottom of an 18 metre deep shaft which was part of a World War II shelter and long redundant underground station. Drill depths of 3 metres and 150 mm diameters through reinforced concrete and cast iron liners were conducted to obtain core samples for material testing, necessary for the pre-demolition planning.

D-Drill London and South Branch Manager, John Barber commented, “It was great to be one of the first contractors on the Shard project, working on an old London site. D-Drill was brought in because of our experience and ability to drill in confined spaces and our understanding of demolition requirements. We are now expecting to be involved in more drilling and sawing projects as the construction of the Shard continues.”

Shard London Bridge is set to become the UK’s & Western Europe’s tallest building standing at 310 metres and comprising over 72 storeys. The brainchild of Italian architect Renzo Piano, this prestigious project is set to complete by the end of 2011. D-Drill adds the Shard contract to its long list of high profile jobs conducted across the UK in the last 40 years.

The owner of a skip hire company has been ordered to pay £5,048 in fines and costs for storing potentially dangerous asbestos at a site near Salisbury, Wiltshire after the case was brought by the Environment Agency.

On 22 May 2008, Agency officers were carrying out a routine inspection of a waste transfer station when they saw a skip full of cement-bonded asbestos. The skip was in an open yard covered with a tarpaulin.

The site operator, Robert Maidment, was only licensed to handle non-hazardous waste such as wood, plastics and builder’s rubble because the site doesn’t have the facilities to accept consignments of hazardous materials including asbestos. Inquiries revealed the corrugated asbestos sheets had come from a block of garages in Tisbury. Robert Maidment had been paid by a roofing company, the waste producer, to take the asbestos away to a landfill site in Redlynch near Salisbury for safe disposal. Instead he transported it to his own premises in breach of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007.

“Because of its hazardous nature, asbestos must be handled with great care and only kept at sites with suitable facilities. The defendant had been warned by the Agency about the illegal storage of asbestos at Stainers Yard, yet chose to ignore our advice,” said Emily Pitts for the Environment Agency.

Robert Maidment, of Clarendon Close, Gillingham, Dorset was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £2,048 costs by Salisbury magistrates after pleading guilty to receiving a skip of bonded asbestos at Maidment Skip Hire on 22 May 2008 in contravention of his site operator’s environmental permit and contrary to the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2007.

Source: http://www.workplacelaw.net/news/display/id/18486

Demolition work in the Searles Valley Mineral Plant 170 miles North of Los Angeles has led to back-to-back mercury spills, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Together, the two incidents produced the West’s biggest spill of mercury – a potent neurotoxin – in two decades, said Robert Wise, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator. He said he has referred the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice for review.

Read the full story here.

Demolition of Cannock Stadium in the UK delayed by presence of bats.

The controversial demolition of Cannock Stadium has been delayed until at least July – after reports that there are bats on the site.

The decision to bulldoze the stadium was made in December because it had become a magnet for yobs since closing in July.

Read the full story here.

In addition, look out for the next edition of Demolition & Dismantling magazine which will carry an article specifically on the subject of bats and the legislation surrounding their protection.