Boxes for refurbished iPhones on display at the Remade plant, where high-end mobiles are reconditioned, in Poilley, northwestern France last year. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP

One company in northern France is doing its profitable best to give an environmental makeover to smartphones, whose circuitry, batteries and plastics have become a polluting blight over the past decade.

With their rapid life cycles and – for the cheaper brands – falling prices, many mobiles have become disposable items for consumers keen to move on to the latest model.

But out of a large warehouse staffed by white-coated workers