Trash is everywhere—stuck in trees, clogging drains, drifting along sidewalks, piling up in forgotten corners. In cities like New York, it’s impossible to ignore—unless you’ve accepted it as reality. For over a decade, Renato has picked up more than 30 tonnes of trash—mostly in the Bronx, but also in cities around the world. What began as a simple act of cleaning became something more. The patterns he observed—what we discard, ignore, and normalize—along with the countless interactions and stories shared by strangers, offered deep insight into our systems and inner struggles. These years connected the dots between his past and a path toward deeper purpose, ultimately shaping the stories and vision in this book.

At its heart, Connecting the Dots Through Trash to the Future is about transformation—personal and collective. It explores what it takes to move beyond fear, limitation, and inherited patterns, toward a more conscious and connected way of living. It proposes that true change doesn’t begin within entrenched institutions (e.g., government); it begins within us. The systems we critique are often reflections of the choices we make each day. When perception shifts, so does reality.

This book invites readers to question the familiar and examine the unseen. It challenges us to move from the binary stage of fear, control, and division into the quantum stage—a space of alignment, expansion, and ascension.