Freddie the tortoise reunited with family after close shave at Newport recycling plant

The tortoise, who turned out to be named Freddie, had somehow found himself in amongst plastic and cans which were to be recycled at the Wastesavers site in the south of the city.

"He was in remarkably good condition by the time we intercepted him," said Phil Hurst, marketing and development officer for Wastesavers.

"He was on the conveyor belt that leads into the bailer. Within a few minutes he had come out of his shell and was exploring the large box we had put him in."

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Mr Hurst and his colleague suspect Freddie might have somehow crawled into a red recycling bag as he was discovered on the plastics and cans line.

"He would have be lightly compacted on the truck," said Mr Hurst.

"We do that because plastic bottles take up so much space. He would then have been emptied out onto the depot floor before being scooped up with a JCB and poured onto a conveyor belt."

The team were preparing to phone a local vet but Freddie's owners turned up so fast there was no need.

Cheryl Poole, Rachel Sutton and Katie Sutton rushed over to the recycling plant to reunite with Freddie.

"We managed to find the owners within an hour," said Mr Hurst.

"They identified him by the markings and a facebook post which reported a missing tortoise from Ringland a few hours earlier."

Mr Hurst said that it had been a long time since a live animal had been discovered at the centre.

"I’m told we had a rabbit make it onto a conveyor belt years ago, but generally this kind of thing doesn’t happen," he said.