Binmen help recover binned €1m lottery ticket in Italy

A €1 million lottery ticket has been recovered from the rubbish in Italy after the frantic winner called on refuse collectors to help her retrieve it, according to the waste management company, the Guardian reported on Tuesday. The player only realised they had binned the life-changing ticket after family told them the numbers they had played for years had been drawn, the BBC added.

The incident, reported by both the Guardian and the BBC, has become a feel-good story in the middle of a summer dominated by heat alerts and political tensions. The woman, whose name has not been released, contacted the waste management team after realising the stub had been thrown away, and workers helped sift through the rubbish to find it.

The recovery is a reminder of the small human dramas that sit alongside Italy's larger crises — and of the often-unseen role of waste workers, whose labour keeps the country's cities functioning through heatwaves and strikes alike.