Cylinder behind front bumper on MK2? Polo

[Meoricin]

I've been helping my cousin with dismantling one of his Polos to refurb, and we took the front bumper off the other day. On the right hand side of the bumper there was a cylinder of some sort, which seemed to be connected to a small pipe in the engine bay (the cylinder is outside, right behind the bumper).

I was wondering what this part is? Couldn't work it out through reasoning, as I'm fairly new to this whole dismantling thing, so I thought I'd come and ask some people who would be likely to know. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture at the time, hope my description is sufficient to let you know what I'm talking about.

[cuprabob]

Could be the Charcoal filter