Climate change skeptics have branded protesters who marched through Manhattan on Sunday as hypocrites for leaving litter strewn across the city.

New Yorkers uploaded images to social media sites showing piles of trash - included ditched paper and cardboard signs - left behind after thousands took part in the People's Climate March.

'Their love for the Earth is so real, they couldn't even use a trash can,' one critic, known as @chelsea_elisa on Twitter, wrote beneath an image of an overflowing trash can.

'Somehow this doesn't seem too green 2me,' David Kreutzer, a research fellow at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, wrote alongside another photo of litter on the ground.

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Trash: Climate change protesters who marched through the streets of Manhattan on Sunday have been branded hypocrites for leaving over-flowing trash cans in their wake. This image was shared on Twitter

Disrespectful: Trash can be seen littering the route following the climate change march on Sunday

How green? Other protesters came under fire for using paper or cardboard signs at Sunday's protest

Speaking to the New York Post, Kreutzer slammed the marchers for wasting paper to create the signs, as well as burning fossil fuels to take buses or planes to the event.

'The hypocrisy varies from person to person,' he said. 'The ones that fly in on private jets are the most hypocritical.'

Celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, were seen parading through the streets of New York City - presumably after catching flights to be there.

They joined as many as 300,000 others - including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. senators - to march through the streets.

Thoughtless: Another Twitter user shared this image, claiming it captured trash following the march

Anger: As well as leaving garbage behind, some took buses or flew across the country to join the event

Calling for change: At least these protesters remembered to recycle their signs along the route

Ignored: Costumes, protest materials and plastic bottles can be seen strewn along the route in Manhattan

Environmentally friendly? A large plastic Starbucks container can be seen left behind on a post

The protest came ahead of Tuesday's UN-hosted summit to discuss reducing carbon emissions that threaten the environment.

Organizers said some 550 busloads had arrived for the rally, which followed similar events in 166 countries including Britain, France, Afghanistan and Bulgaria.

The march snaked through Midtown from Columbus Circle to Times Square and the Far West Side. So many people attended the route that, at one point, the march came to a halt because the entire 2.2-mile route was full.

Debris: The protesters had been held before a UN-led meeting to discuss reducing carbon emissions

Clear up: More than 300,000 people marched along the 2.2 mile route of the protest on Sunday

Mess: Plastic cups and card is left behind in Midtown following the march, according to one Twitter user

Protesters in London, pictured, also bizarrely chose to make hundreds of signs from paper and cardboard

They billed the event as the largest gathering focused on climate change since 2009, when tens of thousands gathered in Copenhagen in a sometime raucous demonstration that resulted in the detention of 2,000 protesters.

In this year's march, protesters carried pictures of sunflowers and, at the rally's head, a banner reading: 'Front lines of crisis, forefront of climate change'.

Protest: An image shows some of the protesters taking part in the People's Climate March through Midtown on Sunday. An international day of action on climate change brought thousands of people to the city

Crowds: As many as 300,000 people attended the event in New York City alone on Sunday