And cigarette butts made up more than 36 per cent of the haul, with lighters at nearly 4 per cent, elevating them into the Top 10 count for the first time.

The latest Clean Up Australia Rubbish Report, released Wednesday, found that litter directly associated with packaging made up 61 per cent of the rubbish reported by ACT volunteers, with food packaging representing 20.7 per cent and non-food packaging reflecting 40.3 per cent of the Top 10 Grouped Data.

Although discarded food packaging was less than the national count at 32.3 per cent, non-food packaging reported a "disappointing" increase of 25.8 per cent.

Clean Up Australia founder Ian Kiernan said he was disappointed with smokers, and urged them to take responsibility for their rubbish.

"Tossing your butts is not OK", he said.

"ACT's beautiful parks, bushland and streets are not an ashtray - take responsibility for your butts and lighters."

But with the majority of rubbish coming from food packaging, he said it was equally important to reduce our reliance on overly packaged goods in the first place.

"By consciously choosing items with less packaging, we can influence the amount of rubbish that ends up in the waste stream or as litter on our streets or in our parks, bushland or waterways."

Although plastic made up 27 per cent of the major sources of rubbish, it was lower than the national tally of 35 per cent.

"Plastic that is not recycled outlives you and me, sitting in landfills and polluting the environment with adverse effects on our land animals and marine-life," Mr Kiernan said.

"It is imperative that we reduce our appetite for single use plastic – takeaway containers, straws, plastic bags and excess packaging – so that they don't have a chance to become litter or sit in landfill."

It's not the first time Canberra's dirty habits have been exposed; last year, a top government environmental adviser urged Canberrans to "clean up their act" after stumbling across a waterway clogged with trash.