Workers dig through 13 tonnes of garbage to find woman's $22,000 diamond ring

A Chinese woman was left searching for a needle in a haystack after she accidentally threw a diamond ring away in her garbage.

But thanks to the strenuous efforts of eight sanitation employees who frantically searched through 13 tonnes of garbage, she was miraculously reunited with her precious band.

The woman, identified only by her surname Xia, lost her 110,000 yuan (AU$21,855) item of jewellery in a rubbish bag at her home in Yangzhou on December 18, the Yangzhou Evening Post reported.

After realising her ring was missing, she raced to the nearest sanitation office to inform them it could potentially be inside one of their garbage trucks.

She managed to make it there before the load was taken to the incineration plant and was made to wait until the following morning when the truck could be unloaded.

On Tuesday morning, eight workers toiled effortlessly, sifting through a giant mound of rubbish before eventually discovering the woman's ring two hours later.

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“Their generous spirit is worth more than my ring,” Xia was quoted as saying.