Brian Mullavey lost the ring, which is engraved with his wife Denise’s name and their wedding date, January 15, 2011.

The garden maintenance worker believes it slipped off while he was unloading green waste at the Albury tip.

The ring was handed in more than a month later.

Albury Council waste management team leader Andrea Baldwin had put the call out for the ring’s owner in The Border Mail last week.

Mrs Mullavey said she thought her husband was joking when he told her the ring had been found.

“I got the paper and I was sitting in Centrepoint and I just started bawling my eyes out,” she said.

“People were walking past wondering what was wrong with me.

“I was so happy.”

The ring was handed over to the couple by tip staff yesterday, but they still don’t know who found it.

“We were elated with the fact it had been found,” Mr Mullavey said.

“We’d like to thank the person who found it and handed it in.

“We’re just over the moon about getting it back.”

It’s not the first time Mr Mullavey has lost the ring, but on the first occasion he found it almost immediately.

Ms Baldwin said it was a miracle the ring had turned up given the huge volume of material processed at the tip.

“It just shows there are a lot of honest people out there, which is positive to see,” she said.

“When you know what goes out of the tip, we just don’t have these sorts of things found.

“It’s a miracle to find it.”

Mr Mullavey believes his recent weight loss had led to the ring becoming loose on his finger.

He plans to have the ring resized to avoid losing it in future.