Here’s how to celebrate Earth Day in Waterloo Region

April 22 is Earth Day, a day promoting environmental protection and education.

The first-ever Earth Day was in the spring of 1970 in the U.S. when then-Senator Gaylord Nelson created the celebration as a way to force the issue of environmental protection onto the national agenda.

The day has been celebrated in Canada since 1990 when the environmental charity Earth Day Canada was formed.

Sunday afternoon, a pair of events are taking place in Waterloo Region to clean up green spaces.

There will be an Earth Day shoreline cleanup at Blair Flat. rare are hosting the event, and plan to clean up garbage and other debris along the river shoreline, Blair Rd., and everything in between.

They will be supplying all the needed garbage bags, but please bring your work gloves. rare is asking you to register before the event on raresites.org. The event starts at 1 p.m.

Centreville-Chicopee Community Association is hosting a cleanup Sunday afternoon from 1-4 p.m., starting at the Centreville-Chicopee Community Centre at 141 Morgan Ave. At the event, you can learn about new recycling initiatives being undertaken and take away a few ideas on how you can reduce your environmental footprint.