BEIJING - China will use 630 million yuan ($97.83 million) to fund pilot programs created for the purpose of preventing the production and sale of illegal cooking oil, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Tuesday.

Thirty-three cities and districts across the country will receive the funds, including Beijing's Chaoyang district, Jiangsu province's city of Suzhou and Hebei province's capital of Shijiazhuang, according to a notice posted on the MOF's website.

The decision to distribute the funds was jointly made by the National Development and Reform Commission, the MOF and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

The programs will focus on turning kitchen waste into useable resources to prevent cooked oil from returning to dinner tables.

China produces about 28 million metric tons of kitchen waste every year, said Nie Yongfeng, a professor of waste treatment at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

China has cooperated with Japan to run similar pilot programs in its cities of Qingdao, Guiyang, Xining and Jiaxing. The programs have been used to recycle kitchen waste, used tires and discarded packaging.