Four Chinese cities, including Qingdao, Guiyang, Xining, and Jiaxing, are planning to test an urban-waste recycling program with the help of Japan over the next four years.

China will learn from the advanced urban waste collection, classification and recycling practices of its neighbor in the coming years in order to build a safe and efficient waste recycling system of its own, Chinese government officials agreed at a launch ceremony of the cooperative scheme between the two countries held in Beijing Thursday.

The recycling system would target three kinds of urban waste, including kitchen garbage, used tires, and packaging, under the cooperative scheme jointly-initiated by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The cooperation will last until February 2015.

"China produces 28 million tonnes of kitchen garbage each year, most of which is buried at dump sites. This not only pollutes the environment, but also occupies valuable land resources," said Nie Yongfeng, a professor with Tsinghua University.

"Some tiny kitchen waste is also dumped through sewage pipes in cities, which can cause blockage of the pipes and increase the difficulty of sewage treatment," Nie said.

China discards 120 million wasted tires each year, but the country's companies lack the capacity to fully recycle them.

NDRC officials said by facilitating advanced technologies for waste disposal, kitchen garbage can become an array of valuable resources such as bio-diesel, bio-gas and useful manure, instead of harmful rubbish.

The JICA China Office also said Japanese experts would start the cooperation with China as soon as possible and would go to these four cities for initial research.