Smokers and burger fans are top litter louts

But in London, cigarette packaging makes up more than half the branded litter on the streets, the Keep Britain Tidy survey 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. In more than half the places surveyed, 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, kebabs and pizza wrappers.

Keep Britain Tidy is working with businesses on the “Love Where You Live” scheme to try to cut litter on the £858m cost of keeping UK streets clean.

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.”