Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-14

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries, people do not recycle their rubbish as much as they could.

Why do you think this is?

What can be done to change this?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

It is a harsh truth that people do not contribute their maximum capabilities to recycle their garbage. There are several root causes like lack of education and government support are backing this occurrence. However, some remedies like public awareness and contributing enough grant might help to mitigate the situation. Both the aspects are explained in this essay.

The primary reason for people to not contributing enough towards the recycling process is the lack of education. This situation arises because of the poverty in many countries, where primary education is merely being taken by the children. Instead of taking attending the schools, many children are forced to work to fulfil their family needs. For example, the literacy rate in some developing countries is only 60 percent, which is the reason of unawareness in the people towards the recycling. Additionally, the lack of government support is equally responsible factor for not motivating the people to recycle their garbage properly. Many thinks it is the waste of time to segregate the waste materials according to their characteristics.

However, some precautionary actions help to overcome the issue. The most effective one is the public awareness. People should know the benefits of the recycling process so they understand their responsibilities towards the nature. This can be done by organizing the events, or the advertisements that might be published through the TV, news channels and social media. Moreover, some rewards should be allocated to public, which motivates them to follow the proper recycling procedure. Developed countries have shown the innovative way by giving money rewards in return of used plastic bottles.

In conclusion, Although lack of education, poverty and lack of civic sense are the factors to resist the public to dedicate fully from recycling their waste, some innovative steps like currency rewards, awareness campaigns help to mitigate the situation in better way.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for low recycling rates and potential solutions. The ideas are relevant, such as the link between poverty/education and recycling habits, and the suggestion of financial incentives. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The explanation regarding poverty is a bit tangential, as it does not clearly link to why people in developed nations also fail to recycle. The position is clear throughout, but the arguments could be more thoroughly extended to reach a higher band. Overall, the response covers all requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two main questions. Cohesive devices are present, such as 'However', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion', though some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. Referencing is generally clear, although there are minor issues with flow, such as the abrupt transition between the discussion of poverty and the lack of government support. The progression of ideas is logical, making the essay easy to follow for the reader.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task. The student uses some topic-specific terms like 'segregate', 'literacy rate', and 'recycling process'. However, there are instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'contributing enough grant' and 'the reason of unawareness in the people'. These errors do not impede communication, but they limit the precision of the writing. To improve, the student should focus on more natural collocations and avoid literal translations of ideas.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the recycling process', 'the poverty'), verb forms ('people to not contributing'), and sentence construction ('Many thinks it is the waste of time'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. The student should focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct usage of articles to improve accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.