Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-16

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)

In many countries, individuals do not recyle as much household waste as they could. This is manily because lack of awareness, inconvenience, and lack of government support. However, several measures can be takeen to encourage people to recycle more regularly.

One major reason of low recycling rates is that many people are not sufficiently informed about the negative conseqence of wate on the environment. Some individuals may not understand how recycling can reduce pollution, conserve natural resources and decrease the amount of rubbish sent to landfill. Another important factor is the convenience, if recycling bins are unavailable or collection systems are complicated, people may throw their recyclable materials away with their general rubbish. In addition, some people tmay feel that recycling takes extra effort and time, particularly when there is no immidiate benenefit for them.

Governments and local authorities can take several steps to address these problems.First, they should provide clear instructions about recycling through schools, televisions, social media and community campaigns. Teaching children about waste from an early age

could also help create environmentally responsible habits. Second, recycling should be made as convenient as possible. For example, households could be be provided with extra recycling bins, and regular collection services could be introduced in residential areas. Finally, governments could offer financial incentives, such as deposit-refund schemes for bottles and cans, while imposing higher charges on businesses that produce excessove amounts of non-recyclable waste.

In conclusion, people often fail to recycle because they lack awareness and find recycling inconvenient. Better education, simpler collection systems, and approperiate fnacial incentives could encourage more people to recycle and reduce the amount waste that ends up in landfill.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response fully addresses both parts of the task by exploring the reasons why people fail to recycle as much as they could, such as a lack of awareness and inconvenience, and by suggesting practical measures like educational campaigns, improved collection systems, and financial incentives. The student's position is clear throughout the text, and ideas are well-developed and supported with relevant explanations and examples, such as deposit-refund schemes. The response successfully meets all requirements of the task prompt, earning a solid Band 7.0 for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay displays clear logical organisation and progression throughout. It is divided into logical paragraphs with an introduction, two body paragraphs focusing on causes and solutions respectively, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to connect ideas, such as 'One major reason', 'Another important factor', and 'Finally'. However, there are minor slips in referencing and transitional mechanics, such as a missing space and punctuation slip in 'problems.First,'. Overall, the text flows smoothly and maintains coherence well, fully aligning with the Band 7.0 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary for the task with some flexibility and precision, employing terms like 'conserve natural resources', 'residential areas', and 'financial incentives'. However, there are several spelling and word-choice errors scattered throughout the response, such as 'recyle', 'manily', 'conseqence', 'wate', 'immidiate', 'benenefit', 'Excessove', and 'approperiate fnacial'. These spelling mistakes and minor slips show that while less common vocabulary is attempted with some awareness, accuracy is not fully consistent, placing this response firmly at a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures like 'if recycling bins are unavailable or collection systems are complicated, people may throw their recyclable materials away'. There are several grammatical errors and typos, such as 'measures can be takeen', 'One major reason of low recycling rates', 'some people tmay feel', and 'households could be be provided'. Additionally, there is a missing article in 'because lack of awareness'. Despite these errors, communication is rarely impeded, and the sentence structures demonstrate an adequate command of grammar, justifying a Band 6.0 score.

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