David Duong and his family were rescued at sea after fleeing Vietnam in a small boat at the end of the Vietnam war. “We almost, you know, died in the ocean because the boat engine broke, and then we have to be out there, the boat just floating.” They lived in a refugee camp before settling in the western state of California. They worked hard, and created a recycling company that is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The company was created because David Duong’s family of 23 needed money. They began gathering cardboard on the street. And they sorted recyclable materials. Duong’s father saved $700 for a partial payment on a used truck. But he needed more money. “He went to Chinatown to a Chinese church and asked for help. The church people know us and they help(ed) us so we can go around and pick up recyclable material and sell -- and that’s how we started.” Workers and machines now do the work that Duong’s family once did by hand. Many trucks leave California Waste Solutions early in the morning to gather materials that can be recycled.