Dr. Ben Bowers Shares Summit Takeaways

“I've had years of cramped-up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it's a pity life
Can't be simple again”

This is a favorite stanza from one of my favorite songs, Rocky Top. It takes me to a kayak on the Tennessee River or, more recently, the Chattahoochee River, with a line cast waiting for fish to bite. It takes me to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia where I watched my first Full Depth Reclamation project on what was jokingly referred to as “a terrible day at the office”. And, at the end of the day, it takes me to a place that was “home-sweet-home to me” for 3.5 years of my life, and home to our Pavement Recycling Summit, the great state of Tennessee.

This was my first recycling summit as the ARRA Technical Advisor, and it’s one I’m proud to have been a part of. The team of organizers – Bryan Ray, Jessie Boone, Tom Lenger, Mark Stahl, and of course our fearless CM Services team of Ali and Morgan – put together a spectacular lineup of speakers. We heard from five different state agencies, including multiple presentations from Tennessee state and county engineers, national perspectives on FDR, new specifications, and thoughts about our current test regimes, and even a little bit about the progress towards being able to generate Environmental Product Declarations for all of our disciplines. I also got to host my first Agency Roundtable. If I’m being honest, I was a little nervous since I had never actually attended one (I wasn’t invited since I wasn’t, you know, an agency…), but the group really didn’t need me… The discussions between agency members from around the country was spectacular, and it was a joyful experience to hear them discussing recycling processes and learning from each other.

That leads me to my next fond memory of the PRS – seeing good friends and making new ones. Whether it was during breakfast, lunch, our outing to Assembly Foodhall, or the many coffee breaks in between, it was great to see everyone networking, solving problems, and sharing a laugh or two in between. Then there was the Nashville Predators game versus the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, where the only “winning” was the “cool-dad” credibility from my 5-year old who recently saw the original Mighty Ducks movie for the first time.

With all that in mind, I hope to see you at the 2026 AEMA-ARRA-ISSA Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. We’re located in beautiful downtown Austin, home of “the other UT”, from February 17-20^th. There’s bound to be more good music, lots of good food, great friends, and a lot of talk about one of our favorite topics: Recycling. See you there!