It was an idea born out of two big, black garbage bags, filled with cigarette butts.
Kilcona Park Dog Club has installed a large, high-tech looking receptacle, capable of holding 8,000 cigarette butts, at the entrance of the park.
The dog club paid for it, but the city will be responsible for emptying it.
Dog club president Donna Henry says thousands of butts were found on a slope near the parking lot during the club’s spring clean-up.
She theorized smokers “drop their butts in the parking lot and then when the city removes the snow from the parking lot in the winter the snow gets dumped (on the slope) so there’s a huge concentration,” she said.
“We just want to make sure that when people come into the parking lot, they don’t just roll down their window and toss the butts, that they park their butts in the butt receptacle.”
City of Winnipeg representative Chris Olbrecht said the city has containers for cigarette butts in other parks, but it was the first time he’d seen one at a dog park.
“I think its actually a great idea,” he said. “Anytime it keeps litter off our streets and keeps our city clean, it’s great. Plus its a big plus for your pets, because its a hazard for them, which I just learned. I didn’t even know that.”
Cigarette butts are toxic to dogs.
Henry said the club paid about $400 for the device. It’s a pilot project, and if people use it, the club may purchase more of them and put some along the park trails.
Olbrecht said it’d be great if humans use it for its intended purpose.
“I hope dogs don’t use it as a marking thing!”