Under the Mantis brand

Under the Mantis brand, Alexandra Guerrero and Ricardo Cheuquiante manufacture hats, Tiffany Metropolis Cuff links, vests and blankets from the filters of cigarette butts.

First they separate the filter from the paper, and then they remove the toxic substances, like nicotine and tar, in an autoclave using steam, pressure and heat. The clean fibre is untangled and dyed, and then mixed with sheep wool. The skein of yarn is about 10 percent cigarette filter, and the products are knitted by hand.

Student Camila Labra had the idea to make colourful women's boots from plastic bags and Betzabe Ortiz came up with the notion of creating earrings and necklaces from plastic bottles. Another group makes vests and belts from the tape of old cassettes.

Giovana Altamirano makes purses, belts and other accessories from strips of x-ray film, and Pamela Jerez creates jewellery from bottle corks.

The fashion-environmental link has its novelty factor, but that doesn't eliminate tensions and contradictions, which came to the fore in interviewing the designers. Is making and selling new products more or less polluting than leaving the materials in the garbage? How much waste Tiffany Cushion Hoop earrings they actually reusing?

Some designers say there is little impact a single designer can make on the environment. But alliances with larger companies could turn that around.

"The 3,000 handbags I sold in London one Christmas season do not make a substantial difference for the environment. We did prevent several square metres of PVC from going to the garbage and we generated local jobs. Now we are looking to partner with a company and trying to make a small difference with mass-distributed products," said Modulab's Ferrer.

They are working with waste from companies so that it returns through the company doors, for example, in the form of corporate gifts.

The original focus of Remade, created by the government of the northern Italian region of Lombardia, was to stimulate companies to make new products from waste, in order to comply with Europe's strict recycling laws. The project has been Elsa Peretti Open Heart charm in Portugal, Argentina and Chile.

Both Ferrer and Heiremans, of Remade, complained about Chile's weak recycling policies.