Yorwaste in York reveal how diamond rings thrown on rubbish tip were recovered

It looked as though the five diamond rings were lost for good after they were inadvertently scooped up, put in to a rubbish bag and dumped at the Yorwaste recycling facility at Hazel Court, near the couple’s home.

The gaffe provoked a frantic early-morning search by the woman and several Yorwaste staff, who incredibly managed to find the rings and reunite them with their owner.

The identity of the couple remains a mystery, but Steve Arundel, Yorwaste’s household waste recycling centre manager, remembered the incident well.

He said: “Luckily the bags were brought in at the end of a shift and were on the top.

“If it had been at the end of the day there would have been no chance.”

“She came before the site had even opened because she was that desperate to find them.

“It is certainly never dull working at the household sites as there is always someone that needs our help in one way or another.”

The story was revealed by Yorwaste as the company celebrated exceeding City of York Council recycling targets, and follows reports last month of a similar case in New Jersey, in the United States, in which garbage workers reportedly sifted through ten tonnes of rubbish before finding a wedding ring and engagement ring accidentally binned by their owners.

Bridget Pericolo, 77, had put the rings in a cup that her husband Angelo then threw out with the rubbish.

When he realised, he phoned the local sanitation supervisor and visited the dump with workers who dug through rubbish until their found the right bag.

Yorwaste is approaching the half-way stage in a ten-year contract with City of York Council to manage the sites at Hazel Court, Beckfield Lane and Towthorpe. For 2008/09, Yorwaste said its recycling performance topped 68 per cent across the three sites, up two per cent on the previous year and also two per cent above the council-imposed target.