Hannah Gray went along to see what they had created.

Old bicycles, broken umbrellas, water cooler bottles and even urinals were thrown into the mix as teams from across the city pitted their engineering skills against each other.

Their goal was to build a device which could catch and distribute rain water, made from material which would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Taking part was a team from Royal Haskoning, two from Peterborough Regional College (PRC) – the First Diploma Dipsticks, and PRC Pacman, Perkins CPI, Cat Scrap Scavengers, from the Cat Electronics section of Perkins, and a team from Guttridge Ltd.

Related:
Video: Hannah Gray meets eco expert Dick Strawbridge who explains how anyone can do their bit for the environment.
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The teams had had a month to put their creations together and no two inventions were the same.

Cat Scrap Scavengers, who consisted of Dan Harland, Tom Twigger, Minhal Rashid, Simon Joyce, Ashish Patel and Joseph Oyekan, used bits of a boat engine, a vacuum cleaner, and even an old noticeboard.

Dan, a systems engineer, said: "It was great fun. The main attraction of it was the opportunity to raise the profile of engineering and the environmental element as well. We all thought it was something worth getting involved in."

Guttridge Ltd created perhaps the most visually striking invention, which used two urinals which were going to be thrown out and a broken umbrella.

The team – Peter Etherington, Andrew Spicer, Jason Burrill and Jake Hudson – spent between 15 to 20 hours each on the project.

The Royal Haskoning team, which consisted of Paul Cook, Kit Hawkins, John Cowley, Alistair McMillan, Doug Watterson and Dan Beeden – made their eco-invention from an old bike, an umbrella and an alternator.

Paul, an electrical engineer, said: "It's taken us a lot of evenings for most of the four weeks. It's taken a lot longer than we anticipated."

The First Diploma Dipsticks from PRC featured youngsters studying for their First Diploma in Electrics.

Together, Luke Warrener, Shaun Veitch, Callum Smith, Will Bowen, Jezz Wollaston and Benjamin Willmott fashioned their creation out of an old stool, a bucket and a weed sprayer.

Luke said: "It took us about a week to do it. It was a relief it worked because we were scared about what Dick was going to say."

The other team from PRC, Pacman, consisted of students on the Btec National Diploma in Engineering course. Arron Rowllin, Dougie Leggat, Raj Lakhman, Joe White and Andrew Homes, used two old water cooler bottles, off cuts of wood and a valve from a car tyre to make their water catcher.

But the overall winner of the day was CPI from Perkins.

Most of the team members – David Cook, Ian Griggs, Tony Davis, Jonney Johnson and Alan Wilson – work in the Continuous Product Improvement department, although they were ably assisted by Harry Griggs (12), Ian's son.

They created a rainwater catcher from an old bike, bits of drain pipe, a beer container and old milk bottles.

The team worked on it over three weekends and by all accounts had a great time doing so.

David said: "It turned into a bit of a party really. It was a social event as much as a competition really."

The team all took home a bag of eco goodies, including organic champagne, donated by John Lewis.

Dick Strawbridge, who has competed in the real Scrapheap Challenge on Channel 4, was assisted in his judging by Jenna Hiley, the climate change office at Peterborough City Council.

He had lots of praise for all of the inventions.

"Everybody built something that did the job," he said. "Some were more ridiculous than others. How many times do you go to a competition where you get urinals and bikes competing against each other? It was a good effort all round."

More on PeterboroughToday.co.uk:
Green Day: more features, information and news on Peterborough's bid to become the UK's Environment Capital.

Environment home Local news, features and information to help you share, enjoy and support Peterborough's environment.

External links:
For more on how you can do your bit for the environment, visit www.pect.net or www.greenenergyswitch.com.