David Duong and The King of Trash: How a Refugee Family Built an Environmental Legacy

In many American cities, recycling trucks and landfill operations sit at the center of a fast-growing environmental services economy. The sector creates jobs, supports climate goals, and keeps modern life moving. For Vietnamese American entrepreneur David Duong, that world is also the record of his family’s survival and renewal. For Duong, the recycling industry is not just an economic sector. It is the bridge between escape from war, refugee status, becoming an American, a rebuilt family business, and a decades-long effort to modernize waste systems in both the United States and Vietnam.

“Our story started when we lost everything in 1975,” Duong says. “My father’s recycling collection and paper mill company in South Vietnam disappeared overnight, and we had to leave our country with nothing.”

Duong remembers the early years in San Francisco as crowded and humbling. “17 of us shared a small apartment,” he recalls.

The family slept in shifts because the space was too small for everyone to lie down at once. By day, they learned to live in a new country without English. By night, they returned to the only work they understood, collecting scrap by hand, just as they had done in Saigon.

“We collected bottles and cardboard at night because that was the only work we could find.”

Duong still hears his father’s words. “My dad always told us there’s honor in every kind of honest work. That belief kept our family together when we had no money and no English.”

Over time, the Duong family saved enough to open CoGiDo Paper Corporation in 1983. “We started with $700 and one old truck,” he says. “We went step-by-step, route by route, and the future slowly opened for us.” CoGiDo became their first stable foothold in the American recycling industry, proving that the family could rebuild what they had lost in 1975.

In 1992, Duong launched California Waste Solutions in Oakland. “I founded California Waste Solutions with eight used trucks and a promise to my parents that we would rebuild our life the right way,” he explains. “We focused on good service, transparency, and respect for every customer.”

Over time, California Waste Solutions grew into one of the most trusted family-owned recycling partners in Northern California, serving both Oakland and San Jose through long-standing municipal collaborations. “In Oakland, we process about 1,000 tons per week,” Duong says. “In San Jose, we handle between 1,300 tons per week for hundreds of thousands of residents.” Those volumes reflect decades of steady partnership with two major West Coast cities, places where recycling is not just a contract but a public lifeline that shapes environmental progress.

The company’s growth also reflects the continuity of family leadership. Duong’s sister, Kristina Duong, has long played a pivotal role in overseeing financial operations, and his brother Victor Duong has guided major operational and administrative functions. Today, the next chapter belongs to the new generation. “My son, Michael Duong, now serves as President of the company,” Duong says. “He is carrying this work forward for the next generation.”

For David Duong, California Waste Solutions is about more than contracts and tonnage. “Recycling gave my family a path into the middle class,” he says. “It gave our employees stability and benefits. It transformed a refugee story into an American story still unfolding.”

Duong has supported Vietnamese language and cultural schools with more than $46,000 in donations, helping younger generations stay connected to their heritage. During moments of crisis, he mobilized more than $105,000 in humanitarian aid for communities devastated by Typhoon Yagi, ensuring relief reached families quickly.

Gratitude for his homeland drives the second half of Duong’s work. “I always felt I owed something back to Vietnam,” he says. “When the country opened up, I was encouraged and wanted to bring modern environmental technology to help improve the environment and the lives of the Vietnamese people.”

Duong describes the work as both business and bridge-building. “We create jobs, train local workers, and protect the environment, improve public health, and increase economic development,” he says. “At the same time, we built a connection between Vietnam and the Vietnamese American community that supported us when we had nothing.” For many overseas Vietnamese, Vietnam Waste Solutions became a symbol of returning home through service, bringing knowledge, investment, and environmental responsibility back to a country that is still developing its waste systems.

With every expansion, Duong returns to his parents’ lessons. “Success is not about how much money you make. It’s about how much benefit you bring to the community.”

The new documentary The King of Trash captures that arc from war to renewal. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Errol Webber, the film blends personal history with the enormous physical scale of the recycling industry, showing how the Duong family’s survival story unfolds across the recycling, landfilling, and overall solid waste management in two continents.

“The film preserves my father’s legacy and the truth of what our family went through,” Duong notes. “It shows how we found treasure in garbage bags and turned that into an opportunity for thousands of people.”

He sees the project as a message to younger generations. “I want immigrant families, especially Vietnamese American families, to know they are not alone,” he says. “If you stay united, work hard, and hold on to your values, you can build something that lasts.” Early screenings of the film have resonated strongly with younger immigrants and first-generation students who see echoes of their own families’ sacrifices in the Duong family’s journey.

For Duong, the work continues on both sides of the Pacific. “My dream now is to prepare the next generation to lead California Waste Solutions and Vietnam Waste Solutions,” he explains. Today, the two companies support hundreds of jobs across two continents and serve millions of residents each week, grounding Duong’s legacy in daily public service rather than corporate ambition. “We built these companies from nothing, and we rebuilt our lives once,” he says. “Now I’m preparing the next generation to take what we built and carry it even further for Oakland, for San Jose, and for Vietnam.”