Fertilizer waste mistreatment facilities: investigating the barrier that keep waste in and attention out at Central Florida's phosphogypsum stacks.

Author

Harsha Devaraj, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow

Date of Award

Spring 6-4-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Program

Global Arts and Cultures

First Advisor

Leora Maltz-Leca

Second Advisor

Ijlal Muzaffar

Abstract

This project investigates the physical and narrative barriers constructed by the phosphate mining and processing industry to dissuade public engagement with its phosphogypsum sites in Central Florida, USA. The barriers around PG utilize decades of misinformation, racial geographies, and misrepresentations of scale, origin, and risk to create powerful narratives about how we should imagine and relate to these materials. These barriers hinder sustained public attention to their sites, enabling extractive industries to expand while avoiding oversight and responsibility. Attention to how these barriers around phosphogypsum are constructed allows us to recognize these strategies at work in how we see and communicate about industrial wastes, and opens up the possibility of new and more generative relationships with these materials.

Comments

View exhibition online: Harsha Devaraj, Fertilizer waste mistreatment facilities

Recommended Citation

Devaraj, Harsha, "Fertilizer waste mistreatment facilities: investigating the barrier that keep waste in and attention out at Central Florida's phosphogypsum stacks." (2022). Masters Theses. 853.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/853

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.