Potential Industries, Inc. is a privately owned, full-service, vertically integrated recycling company that has been transforming how waste is recovered through recycling for almost forty years. We are an end user and consistent buyer of recovered materials, with four recycling facilities in Southern California and joint ventures both domestically and overseas.Strategically located adjacent to the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, Potential is one of the top five exporters of paper in the United States, shipping 60,000 TEU’s out of LA ports each year to buyers in Asia, including our own manufacturing facility that produces 100% recycled content newsprint. Our 10-acre facility serves as a primary truck route and is rail-sided, able to efficiently serve both local and regional markets.

tries co-founder Tony Fan graduated from UC San Diego with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering in 1974.  After working for a few months at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he decided to pursue the American Dream and start a recycling company.  At that time there was very little recovered paper export activity in the US except for material flowing to Canada and Mexico. Tony and his sister, Jessica, saw the potential for export to Asia and believed that recycling in California would expand.  Together they decided to create a new company called Potential Industries and pursue their dream of building a recycling network which would profitably help improve the environment. 

Sustainability

We have been at the forefront of recycling for almost 40 years. We have opened up new markets for recyclable materials, and continue to lead the way as a processor, exporter, and consumer of recycled paper. Our model is to keep increasing the materials diverted from disposal, conserving resources and adding value to the supply chain. By processing more than 300,000 tons of recyclables per year, we make an incredible impact on the environment. Every year, we save 2 billion gallons of water, conserve nearly a million cubic yards of landfill space, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.