The City of St. John’s has been an Earth Day Canada ‘mobilizing municipality’ since at least 2022 and have signed up to continue as an Earth Day Canada Mobilizing Municipality for 2025.

The 2025 Earth Day Canada theme is biodiversity protection and/or restoration, with the goal to encourage as many citizens, municipalities, and organizations as possible to reconnect with nature and better understand the importance of preserving biodiversity for ecosystem balance, food security, and resilience to climate change.

The City of St. John’s has planned several events to celebrate and recognize Earth Day 2025:

Earth Day Flag Raising
All are welcome to join the City of St. John’s in recognizing Earth Day as we hold a flag raising event at City Hall. The event will begin at Wyatt Hall on the second floor.
• 10 a.m., Tuesday, April 22

Compost Giveaway
Beginning on Earth Day Tuesday, April 22 compost will be available until the end of November to residents free-of-charge in the Residential Drop Off (RDO) at the Robin Hood Bay Waste Management Facility. The RDO is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays; residents must use the RDO entrance, bring their own buckets and shovel to load the compost, and all loads must be covered and secured before leaving the site. The compost is made from yard waste the City has been collecting in paper yard waste bags since 2018.

Backyard Composting Information Session (in-person)
Attend a free in-person backyard composting information session hosted by the staff at the Memorial University Botanical Garden during their fourth annual Seedy Saturday event. Once completed receive a certificate that qualifies residents to purchase a subsidized-cost backyard compost bin from the City of St. John’s. Everyone is welcome, pre-registration is not required.
• 1-2 p.m., Saturday, April 19
• Memorial University Botanical Garden, 306 Mount Scio Road

Trail Explorers with Nature Interpretation
All are welcome to attend this special offering of the City’s Trail Explorers program from the Recreation division and enjoy a guided walk/wheel at Bowring Park with interpretation provided by City Parks staff about the biodiversity of plant and tree species in the park, and to learn horticultural practices the City uses to protect the health and biodiversity of the urban landscape.
• 11 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, April 22 (inclement weather date, same time: Wednesday, April 23)
• Meet in the accessible parking lot (under the bridge) at the east end of Bowring Park

I am Reducing Food Waste Workshop (online)
Attend a free online workshop about reducing food waste hosted by Earth Day Canada. Learn how to reduce food waste from your grocery list to your storing and cooking habits and share your tips and positive successes reducing food waste. Pre-registration is required.
• Noon to 1:30 p.m., Friday, April 25
• Pre-registration is required, via the Zoom meeting platform

City Recreation Programs
From April 21-25 Waste and Recycling staff will visit spring camps at City of St. John’s Community Centre’s to play games, complete activity sheets and watch videos to educate and empower children to be kinder to the earth by reducing, reusing and recycling. During the week all camp participants will take part in a litter clean up around the community centre.