David Cameron quickly realised that his misplaced keys were in his recycling which had already been collected for processing at his local Materials Recycling Facility in East Devon.

David contacted the local team at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, who run the facility on behalf of East Devon District Council and informed them of his lost keys.

He hoped that a tracking device on his phone could help find them. SUEZ process all of the recycling for the East Devon area and receive approximately 400 tonnes of recycling per week so the team didn’t hold out much hope of finding them.

Dominic Cullip, Senior Site Manager said: "The team, led by Jon Holford were amazing, it only took 15 minutes to find the keys using the tracking system on David’s phone.’ ‘‘Luckily the timings worked out as we were in the middle of processing the plastics, another 10 minutes later the keys would have been baled ready to be sent on for the next stage of recycling.’’

Cllr Geoff Jung East Devon District Council’s portfolio holder for Coast, Country and Environment, said: ‘‘It can be very worrying when you lose your keys, especially, when you realise they are amongst up to 400 tonnes of recycling."

The keys were finally located within the unprocessed plastics after searching through the stockpile following the tracking app on David’s phone, who of course was absolutely delighted.

Cllr Juny added: ‘‘Thanks to all the team at Suez for going above and beyond to help our residents. They really know how to turn trash into treasure.’’