Fast-food wrappers top the list of rubbish dropped in more than half the UK’s cities and towns, a survey of the brands found littering the streets showed.
But in London, cigarette packaging makes up more than half the branded litter on the streets, the survey by Keep Britain Tidy revealed.
Cigarette packets made up 62 per cent of the recognisable brands of rubbish spotted, a massive increase on the year before, when the litter made up just 14 per cent of the total.
In more than half the places surveyed by the anti-litter campaigners, including Manchester, Rugby, Sheffield and Southend, fast-food brands topped the list of rubbish on the streets.
In other parts of the country, such as Carlisle and Gloucester, confectionery wrappers were the most common types of litter.
Across the UK as a whole, McDonald’s was the brand most seen as litter on the streets, making up 13 per cent of the items found.
Cadbury, Greggs, Wrigley, Coca-Cola, Mars, Marlboro, Lambert and Butler, and Subway were all also in the top 10 for brands of litter on the streets, along with unbranded fish and chips, kebab and pizza wrappers.
Keep Britain Tidy is working with businesses on the Love Where You Live scheme to try to cut litter on the UK’s streets, which costs £858 million to clear up.
Jez Langhorn, vice-president of McDonald’s UK, said: “At McDonald’s, we want to be responsible members of the communities in which we operate and that’s why we have been working hard to reduce the amount of litter on our streets.
“For 20 years we have been sending out daily litter patrols and organising larger ‘clean-up’ events, and it is why we are proud to be working with Keep Britain Tidy as a founding member of Love Where You Live.”
Keep Britain Tidy chief executive officer Phil Barton said: “We need to make a change so that this country is no longer a place where it is, seemingly, acceptable for some to throw litter.
“It is time for us to start taking some pride in our country and for everyone to love where they live.”
And he said: “Some companies are taking action, supported by Keep Britain Tidy, to tackle litter and are committed to educating their customers.
“It would be nice to see other fast food and confectionery manufacturers, along with cigarette manufacturers, take the issue as seriously and become involved in Love Where You Live.”