In 2005, the Fnac stores in Nantes, Dijon and Limoges, in partnership with the Emmaüs charity, conducted an operation “recycle your mobile phone” to salvage and to recondition used computers. The success of the operation prompted Fnac to widen the initiative, in June 2006, to collecting used mobile phones in all its stores.

The phones collected are passed on the Ateliers du Bocage, a “restart” employment undertaking affiliated to Emmaüs France, which employs people in precarious circumstances.

If the unit is in working order, it is repaired, then marketed second-hand through the Emmaüs sales network, or other channels. If the mobile phone does not work, it is routed, in compliance with regulations, towards approved reclamation channels.

More than 1,500 kg of telephones were therefore collected in 2007. Almost two-thirds of these telephones no longer worked and were sent to recycling channels. A third were repaired and sold on the second hand market.