Papers are invited for an International Symposium on Testing and Specification of Recycled Materials for Sustainable Geotechnical Construction, to be held February 2-4, 2011. Sponsored by ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock, the symposium will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland, in conjunction with the January 30-February 4 standards development meetings of Committee D18.

This symposium will provide a forum for exchange of ideas on current research nationally and internationally on the use of industrial byproducts and other recycled materials in geotechnical construction. A key objective is to identify new opportunities for standards and specifications that will facilitate more widespread and common use of industrial byproducts and other recycled materials in geotechnical construction. Both geoenvironmental and geomechanical issues will be covered as well as life cycle assessment, impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, and energy consumption.

Articles on laboratory and field tests used to measure the properties of recycled materials, development of specifications, and case histories are of interest. Case histories that demonstrate or assess the utility of test methods, evaluation techniques, or construction specifications are of particular interest.

Other topics that are of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Impediments to using industrial byproducts and other recycled materials in construction
• Assessment of potential environmental impacts, including test methods and screening/evaluation procedures
• Characterization and measurement of engineering properties of industrial byproducts and other recycled materials
• Application or adaptation of existing standards for recycled materials and industrial byproducts
• Characterization and measurement of durability properties
• Coal combustion products, scrap tires, foundry products, slags, recycled asphalt, recycled concrete, recycled asphalt shingles
• Need for new standards related to industrial byproducts and other recycled materials

  The language of the symposium will be English.

To participate in the symposium, presenters/authors must submit online the Abstract Submittal Form and attach a 250-300 word preliminary abstract no later than April 15, 2010. Scroll to the top of the page to "Go to Abstract Submittal Form". To ensure your abstract was received into the ASTM database system, please email hsparks@astm.org stating that your abstract was submitted. The abstract must include a clear definition of the objective and approach of the work discussed, pointing out material that is new, and present sufficient details regarding results. The presentation and manuscript must not be of a commercial nature nor can it have been previously published. Because a limited number of abstracts will be accepted, be sure that the abstract is complete to allow for careful assessment of the paper's suitability for this symposium. The symposium chairman, Tuncer Edil, will notify you by postal mail by July 15, 2010 of your paper's acceptability for presentation at the symposium. If the preliminary abstract is accepted, the presenter/author will be requested to submit a final camera-ready abstract several months before the symposium. The final abstracts will be distributed in an abstract booklet at the symposium.

Symposium presenters are required to submit their papers to the Journal of ASTM International (JAI). JAI is an online, peer-reviewed journal for the international scientific and engineering community. You may access information about JAI at www.astm.org/JAI. Additionally, you may wish to review the new web-based submission and peer-review site at http://jai.peerx-press.org. After the final selection of abstracts has been approved, the ASTM Editorial Office will send authors' instructions via email only. Manuscripts to be peer reviewed for JAI are due online no later than January 10, 2011 at the ASTM Editorial Office. The corresponding author (the author who is the main contact with ASTM Headquarters) will receive a copy of his/her paper in portable document format (PDF). All published authors will have the opportunity to purchase reprints of their papers at a nominal cost.

ASTM publishes individual paper(s) in the first available issue(s) of JAI. ASTM also issues a collection of reprinted papers (after publication in JAI) as a Special Technical Publication (STP). (A minimum of ten papers is required for an STP.) Only those papers submitted by the manuscript due date will be included in the STP.

Additional information about the symposium is available from Symposium Chairman Tuncer Edil, Ph.D., P.E., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, at edil@engr.wisc.edu or 608-262-3225.