A mother has been reunited with the ashes of her dead son, a day after they were stolen from her bedside during a break-in in Melbourne's outer north.

Daniel Buccianti died from a drug overdose at the Rainbow Serpent music festival in 2012.

The 34-year-old had phoned his mother, Adriana, shortly before passing away, telling her he had taken "some really bad acid".

Ms Buccianti has kept her son's ashes in a plain box beside her bed since his cremation, but yesterday discovered thieves had stolen them during a break-in at her Wollert home.

The mess left after Adriana Buccianti's home was burgled. ( Supplied: Adriana Buccianti )

"Why they would do that is beyond my understanding," an emotional Ms Buccianti told ABC Radio Melbourne earlier today.

But this afternoon, police returned the ashes to Ms Buccianti, after a women in the Melton area found the box containing them in her household recycling bin.

"The universe has an amazing way of doing things," Ms Buccianti told the station during a follow-up call a short time ago.

Ms Buccianti said she was feeling a range of emotions.

"I feel happy that the ashes are back. I feel angry because he should be here physically," she said.

"I feel angry that I was violated and that these people, the mentality of not only coming to my home and invading my personal space, taking things that don't belong to them, [but] then throwing the ashes in a recycling bin.

"But this lady was just vigilant enough to realise that this didn't belong to her, that it was weird, and she called the police."

She says the pension card of her father, who died four weeks ago, was also found in the bin.

Adriana Buccianti says she is devastated by the loss of her son's ashes. ( Supplied: Adriana Buccianti )

Ms Buccianti has used her son's experience to campaign for pill testing at festivals and hoped to return to Canberra soon to continue to push federal politicians.

"Daniel's death cannot remain just a statistic," she said.

A box in another room that contained the ashes of Ms Buccianti's father, who died four weeks ago, was not stolen.