California Waste Solutions

Oakland – October 14, 2026 -- The Vietnamese American Business Association (VABA) reports a network of more than 2,200 professionals and 720 businesses across 12 U.S. states and eight countries as it marks 15 years since its 2011 founding, and says its VABA Venture Capital arm is backed by $50 million from the Duong family office.

Founder and chairman David Duong built the group after launching a California recycling business and investing in Vietnam. His family arrived in the Bay Area in 1979 as refugees and started by collecting and selling cardboard and other recyclables. That work led to California Waste Solutions, founded in 1992, which expanded into municipal recycling services in Oakland and San Jose.

Oakland, Calif. – October 08, 2026 -- California Waste Solutions is advancing a waste-to-energy project in Ho Chi Minh City requiring an investment of more than half a billion dollars, expanding its environmental infrastructure footprint beyond its core Oakland and San Jose recycling operations.

Oakland, Calif. – September 20, 2026 -- California Waste Solutions, founded in 1992 with eight used trucks, now serves more than 343,000 customers across Oakland and San Jose and processes over 717,000 tons of recycling material annually, according to figures cited in the feature documentary "The King of Trash," which returns to Bay Area theaters this month.

Documentary tracks 34-year build from street collection to municipal contracts

Oakland, Calif. – September 18, 2026 -- Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS), the Vietnamese subsidiary of Oakland-based California Waste Solutions (CWS), has proposed a 50- to 60-megawatt waste-to-energy plant at its Da Phuoc Integrated Solid Waste Facility (DPI) outside Ho Chi Minh City, adding to roughly $200 million already invested in the site.

VWS proposes new power plant to expand Vietnam's largest engineered landfill

DPI, a 341-acre facility built in the mid-2000s to the U.S. Subtitle D standard, currently buries up to 6,500 tons of municipal solid waste daily -- about 2.4 million tons a year -- covering more than half of Ho Chi Minh City's household waste output of roughly 10,000 tons per day. VWS this year formally submitted the waste-to-energy proposal and is now moving through appraisal and permitting.

San Jose, Calif. – September 18, 2026 -- Over 60 drivers and mechanics at California Waste Solutions in San José have overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year labor contract, securing substantial wage increases, expanded protections for relief employees, and a ninth week of vacation time described by union officials as industry-leading.

Workers servicing 170,000 households secure long-term wage gains

The ratified agreement, negotiated by Teamsters Local 350, covers employees who provide residential recycling services to more than 170,000 households across the San José area. The five-year term locks in economic terms and revised work rules through the contract period.