Planting trees and building home-made composters, Canadians will celebrate Earth Day by getting their hands dirty.

"There are about six million Canadians that take part in Earth Day activities. With a population a little over 30 million, that's quite a significant number," says Jed Goldberg, President of Earth Day Canada.

On April 22, Canadians will take part in events all across the country, learning how they can do their part to help improve the environment. This marks the 35th annual global "Earth Day."

Planting trees is one of the most popular ways Canadians celebrate Earth Day. In Toronto, more than 1 000 trees will be planted in a special event in Downsview Park.

"Canadians have a strong passion for planting trees in celebration of Earth Day, and that's not nearly as prevalent in other parts of the world as it is here," says Goldberg.

Because the environment isn't on school curricula, Goldberg believes Earth Day is more important than ever before.

"It can be put into a geography program, a science program, a history program, whatever, but it isn't as if there are formal environmental education programs that are offered by most ministries," says Goldberg.

Paul Czene, a community youth worker in Vancouver, hopes that Canadians will not only be educated on environmental issues, but will be motivated to make changes.

"People are slow to change their habits, but they also need realistic options," Czene told CTV.ca. "To change their habits, they are not going to just do it because it will save the world in some generic sense; they need to see something practical."

In order to reach kids, Czene is running Ecofest with the Vancouver Parks Board. The event will feature a push-mower time trial, a discussion of the one-tonne challenge, and bat-box building.

"The kids learn about nature and they get a scientific approach to it, but they have fun with it, and learn how to have a positive impact."

But Czene admits that only so much can be accomplished in one day.

"It's not enough, but how else do you really reach the public? You don't want to guilt trip people, and on that day, you want to show people what they can do."

On Earth Day, Czene recommends doing something creative with objects that would normally be thrown in the trash.

"Something that is very popular out here is that people are buying dogs like crazy. Unfortunately people don't like dealing with the dog's waste products, so they developed a 'number two' dog composter."

"So you can take your old garbage can, dig a hole in the ground, take the bottom out of your garbage can, drop it in the hole, and put in some rocks and sand."

"Every time you find your dog's business in the back yard, you drop it into this pit, and there's an active ingredient you put on top, so there's no smell, and no left over bi-products."

Environmental activists are sometimes portrayed as extremists, a problem that can make it difficult to get people excited about the environment.

"People have a perception of what an environmentalist is like, and not everybody likes to be perceived in this manner," Czene says. "So we say 'here's what you can do without appearing as if you are a super activist or something'."

But for those environmentalists, Earth Day is the one day to convince the mainstream to try something different.

"If people pick up one new habit, then you've done your job."