(UPI) A New Hampshire man who accidentally threw his wife's wedding rings in the trash was able to find them again with some help from sanitation workers.

Kevin Butler of Windham said he didn't realize until his trash was at the local transfer station that the napkin he threw in the garbage contained his wife's rings, which had been wrapped up to dry after being cleaned.

"She looked around for her rings. I said, 'I've got a good feeling they may be in the trash that I just took to the transfer station,'" Butler told WMUR-TV.

Butler went back to the transfer station, where he explained the situation to Dennis Senibaldi, Windham's general services director.

Senibaldi and his team reviewed surveillance camera footage to identify the area most likely to contain the bag from Butler's home.

The area turned out to contain about 20 tons of trash, which the team then sifted through until they found the right bag.

"As we were going through the bag that we knew was his, he actually said, 'It's not in here.' And I said, 'No, there's a couple little pieces left,'" Senibaldi recalled. I had my rubber gloves on, I moved a few items out of the way and saw literally the very last napkin and I opened it up.

Butler said he is thankful to have the rings back, even though it meant digging through trash.

"Wouldn't recommend anyone else do it," Butler said. But, you know, to get the rings back, I would do it a thousand times over.

Butler thanked the transfer station workers by bringing them pizza.

Workers at the the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Solid Waste transfer facility in Nova Scotia accomplished a similar feat in September, when a woman's rings were thrown into the trash with a paper towel. The workers sifted through trash for more than two hours before finding the precious items.

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