It’s National Cell Phone Recycling Week!

The U.S. EPA’s Plug-In To eCycling National Cell Phone Recycling Week runs this year on April 5-11.

The EPA’s project brings together leading cell phone manufacturers and service providers to encourage consumers to recycle used wireless devices, batteries, chargers and other accessories and to reduce the amount of reusable materials in landfills, including e-waste.

Cell phone coatings are often made of lead, and their lithium-ion batteries can explode if exposed to high temperatures or direct sunlight, which are common conditions in landfills.

It’s estimated that just 1 percent of the 4 billion wireless users worldwide recycle their cell phones after use.

AT&T announced last week that it will offer three simple ways to donate and recycle phones: Wireless customers of any carrier can drop off used cell phones and accessories at any of the 2,000-plus AT&T stores across the U.S.; go to www.att.com/recycle to download free shipping labels and mail them in for recycling or request that a free shipping envelope be mailed to them for recycling.

Part of the proceeds from these efforts benefits Cell Phones for Soldiers (CPFS), a charity that recycles cell phones and uses the proceeds to buy free phone cards for troops overseas.

In 2009, AT&T collected more than 4.2 million cell phones and almost 1.8 million pounds of batteries and accessories, overall.

The world’s largest cell phone recyclers, ReCellular, collects 25,000 cell phones daily from more than 40,000 collection sites.

Other major cell phone retailers also have in-store or mail-back recycling programs.