Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-02

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The diagram below shows the process for recycling plastic bottles.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

How plastic bottles are recycled

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The circular diagram illustrates the recycling process of plastic bottles.

Overall, this process consists of nine stages starting from waste disposal and collection followed by sorting, compressing, crushing, washing, producing plastic pellets, heating, raw material to final products.

The process starts with the dumping of plastic bottles into the recycle bins. That trash can be collected by using trash collection trucks and reached at recycling center. When waste is reached there, the first step is to be sorting of plastic bottle. they segregate the bottle in terms of plastic material so that further processing is easy. After that, the waste is compressed into the blocks by using compressor. That compressed blocks are crushed by suing crusher to reduce their size into tiny particles. That particles are gone into washing tank to remove the impurities which stick on that surface. The washed piece of plastics converted into plastic pellets and that will be used for making products. Furthermore, plastic pellets are converted into raw material by means of heating. That raw material is further used for making cloths, plastic bags, water bottles and container.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by outlining the main stages of the plastic bottle recycling process, from initial disposal to final product manufacturing. An overview is provided at the beginning, which effectively outlines the progression through the nine stages. However, certain parts of the process are developed more fully than others; while the sorting and crushing steps are described with some detail, the transition between plastic pellets and raw material is somewhat under-developed and condensed. The information is generally accurate according to the diagram, successfully reporting the sequence without missing the overall loop structure, although some descriptions lean towards mechanical listing rather than fully synthesized reporting.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear beginning, middle, and end, following the chronological flow of the diagram. Paragraphing is utilized to separate the introduction, the overall summary, and the main body details. However, cohesion is at times mechanical and repetitive, relying heavily on consecutive connectors such as 'After that', 'That', and 'Furthermore' to link sentences. Referencing occasionally becomes unclear, such as the repetitive use of 'That' in phrases like 'That trash can be collected' and 'That compressed blocks', which affects the smooth progression of ideas and disrupts the natural flow of the response.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating process-specific terms such as 'recycling process', 'waste disposal', 'segregate', 'compressor', 'crusher', and 'plastic pellets'. There are, however, several word-choice and word-form inaccuracies, such as 'reached at recycling center' instead of 'reach the recycling centre', 'is to be sorting of plastic bottle' instead of 'sorting the plastic bottles', 'suing' instead of 'using', and 'cloths' instead of 'clothes'. While these errors and occasional awkward collocations are noticeable, they do not severely impede communication and represent an adequate performance for this level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and passive structures such as 'the waste is compressed into the blocks by using compressor' and 'The washed piece of plastics converted into plastic pellets'. There are frequent errors in grammar, including missing or incorrect articles ('the recycle bins', 'recycling center'), subject-verb agreement issues ('That particles are gone', 'The washed piece of plastics converted'), and awkward prepositional patterns. Although these errors occur frequently throughout the response, the meaning is generally decipherable and they rarely impede overall communication.

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