The idea was born from Guerrero's frustration with how many cigarette butts she saw throughout the city. She decided she wanted to do something about the litter to better her city, and made a statement at the same time. 

So, you may be thinking, "Gross. I'm not putting someone's disgusting cigarette butt on my body!" Guerrero had thought about that as well, and before continuing on with her project, asked environmental engineer Carolina Leiva to help her out. She conducted a study to determine just how pure the material would be after cleaning the butts. The study concluded that the filters could achieve 95% purification, which, according to the designer, means that the clean butts are safe to use.

Guerrero has so far made a vest, a poncho, a dress, and a hat. She's even  mixed the material from the cigarette filters with soap to make an exfoliating product (wow!).

The end-result textile contains 20% recycled-cigarette filter material, and Guerrero has recover 5,000 cigarette butts from the streets so far.

This might not be the ultimate solution to the huge problem of cigarette litter (4.3 trillion butts are tossed on the ground every year but can take anywhere from 7 to 10 years to break down), but neither is it a bad way to raise awareness about what can be done with otherwise dreadful and harmful litter.

Check out the full story and more pictures at Treehugger.com