Husband braves 18 tons of trash to look for lost wedding rings

A Canadian man sifted through heaps of rubbish at his local dump in a determined—and ultimately successful—attempt to recover his wife’s wedding rings after they were accidentally thrown away.

Steve Van Ysseldyk and his wife, Jeannine, had spilled a bag of cinema popcorn in their garden. Unknowingly, her rings slipped into the bag, which was later tossed in the compost. By the time they realised, the compost had already been collected.

Determined to find the rings, Steve went to the Mission Sanitary Landfill in British Columbia. Armed with a shovel and gloves, he began digging through 18 tonnes of organic waste on a rainy day that helped keep the smell down.

"My wife was very sceptical. I told her, I'll go to the dump tomorrow morning and ask [to search the facility]," he said.

"And she's like 'they're not gonna let you' and I was like, 'you never know. You gotta try'."

With help from landfill worker Denny Webster, who used an excavator, Mr Van Ysseldyk searched for signs of the popcorn. He eventually spotted discarded sausages from his family’s compost, and soon after uncovered both rings—within an hour.

According to a BBC report, Jeannine, who had been looking into buying a metal detector, broke down in tears when he called with the news.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Steve said he simply did what he had to: “The wife’s gotta have her rings.” His wife added that the experience had only strengthened their marriage: “I know how much he loves me—he was willing to go through a rotten, stinky compost pile.”