These materials include low-grade waste from power stations and small devices containing radioactive materials such as cesium-137, used in some cancer treatments, cobalt-60, used in food irradiation, or americum, incorporated in sensors for oil exploration.

ECONOMIST: How dirty bombs are made, and what they can do

These include Yuri Suzuki, a materials scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who is building stacks of metal oxides in the hopes that, when combined with carbon-based materials, they'll blend into a new kind of semiconductor that can control spin at normal temperatures.

FORBES: Magazine Article

He said the plan would include proposals to ban certain materials, like biodegradable waste, from landfill and recover the energy from these materials.

BBC: Zero Waste Plan debate