It may seem odd to combine a traditional beauty contest with a green agenda, but not to the 62 contestants gathered in a hotel outside Coventry, hoping to win the chance to represent Britain at the world's third-largest beauty pageant.

Many of the girls enter as many competitions as they can - Miss England, Miss Intercontinental, Miss Black Beauty - and dread life after they're too old for the circuit. George Sargent looks bemused. He's sitting with a pint in a hotel bar in Coventry, with one eye on the Ashes and the other on Miss East Kilbride who has just come in wearing a remarkable above-the-knee, strapless dress made entirely from the pages of a Glasgow telephone directory.

It took her 50 hours, and the help of a very supportive boyfriend, to pleat hundreds of individual pages to form the skirt and then make the fitted bodice. Time well spent, she believes, if it helps her to win the "eco-dress" section of the Miss Earth beauty pageant.

Three miles outside Coventry town centre, the Chace Hotel is playing host to 62 girls, aged 18 to 25, hoping to be crowned this year's Miss Earth for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and book a place at next year's global final in the Philippines. As my taxi pulls in to the hotel car park, I suddenly find myself surrounded by a rush of young beauties dressed in green (get it?), heading out for the first photo session of the weekend.

The eco-girl concept seems to have struck a chord among marketers as part of the wider global phenomenon that is Eco Inc.

It also meets with unequivocal approval from Mr Sargent, 66, a retired businessman and local magistrate: "I come in here every night to meet my ladyfriend for a drink, so I wasn't expecting this. The girls look amazing, I can't believe some of these dresses, and I've seen a few things in this bar over the last 40 years," he says, distracted suddenly by Miss Croydon, a rugby player, who is wearing a dress made out of empty beer cans and bin bags.

Notwithstanding the incongruity of young women parading their looks in the name of saving the planet, the Miss Earth contest is catching on. In 2003, it adopted the catchy slogan "Beauties for a cause" and created the Miss Earth Foundation to promote environmentally friendly projects such as planting trees, picking up litter and pushing eco-brands.

Now in its ninth year, the contest has established itself as the world's third biggest beauty contest after Miss World and Miss Universe. And others are climbing on the environmental bandwagon: America's Top Green Model can be expected on our TV screens later this year.

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