A woman who dropped her car keys into a recycling bin is smiling again after they were delivered to her door three days later.

Disaster struck for Teresa Weeks when she emptied a bag of cans into a recycling bank in Banstead on Saturday, November 16, and the keys to the family's Volvo went in too.

Mrs Weeks' telephoned her husband, Clive, who came to the rescue with a spare set of keys, and the incident was reported to the borough council by her daughter, Kate.

The council's streetcare unit arrived before the recycling lorry took the can bin away, and the keys were returned to their owner the following Tuesday (November 19).

Mrs Weeks said: "My daughter Kate persuaded me to ring the council to report them lost but in truth I never thought I would see them again.

"For the keys to be found amongst all of those cans, and then a man in a suit to arrive at my door and deliver them in person was lovely. I cannot thank them enough."

Councillor Philip Circus (Cons, Chipstead-Hooley and Woodmansterne), portfolio holder for environmental services, joked: "We often say that recycling is key but that doesn't mean we want people's keys."

He added: "We are constantly trying to encourage more recycling and our sites do accept cans, glass of various colours and shapes, and newspapers and magazines.

"We are also conducting a trial for plastics. However, at this stage, we have never found a great demand for a bank to recycle car keys."