Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-16

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 5.5)

In many growing countires, people do not recycle their garbage and this has attracted cosnsiderable attention in recent yers. This trend can largely be attributed to lack of education about benefits and impact and it has several implication on society. Both aspect warrant careful consideration.

One of the key reason is that people are unaware regarding this due to lack of education. Developing countires have more people who have never had a thought that garbage also can be recycle sorted, can be recycle and reuse. For example, people is slum areas are full of rubbish on road because of lack of public awareness. Another contributing factor is the population growth ,which can generate waste at alarming rate and can make it difficult to handle.For instance, some populated countries have their dumping yards almost size of a mountain which is not sustainable waste system.

This development has adverse effect on people's both physical and mental health. On the positive side this situation can be avoided by educating people on how to recycle and reuse appropriately. For example, People can give paper, plastics and metal etc to recycling company and their organic waste can reuse in terms of fertilizer in their nearby farms. Furthermore, this kind of practice makes people some money from recycling and resell the items. For instance, many of the paper recycling companies give money on amount of paper you give them for recylcle, same goes for cans and other items. This kind of activites are largely beneficial to environment due to less production of plastics and papers.

By way of conclusion, lack of public awareness is a major contributing factor behing less recycling, while its effects can be reduced by education people to contribute towards this. Understanding causes and consequences of this is also essential for people in those countries.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both parts of the question: lack of awareness is presented as a reason, and education, recycling services and financial incentives are suggested as responses. The examples about separating paper, plastics and metal, and reusing organic waste as fertiliser, make the proposed actions relevant. However, the causes and solutions are not developed equally. Population growth and large dumping sites are mentioned, but the link between population growth and low recycling is not fully explained. The claim that poor recycling harms physical and mental health is also left unsupported. To strengthen the response, explain how each cause leads specifically to low recycling and develop the practical measures with clearer detail about who should provide education or collection services.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, moving from an introduction to causes, effects and possible solutions, followed by a conclusion. Paragraphing helps the reader identify these stages, and examples generally follow the points they illustrate. However, the progression is not always clear: the third paragraph begins with effects, then shifts to solutions, while the question asks directly for causes and ways to change the situation. Some linking phrases, such as “On the positive side” and “Furthermore,” connect ideas mechanically rather than showing their precise relationship. The conclusion repeats the awareness point but does not bring together the main causes and solutions. Organise the body into a clear causes paragraph and a solutions paragraph, using references that make each connection explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “public awareness,” “dumping yards,” “recycling company,” and “organic waste,” and you attempt more specific expressions such as “alarming rate” and “sustainable waste system.” This gives you enough range to discuss the topic, but inaccurate word choice, collocation and spelling are noticeable and sometimes make ideas less clear. For example, “garbage also can be recycle sorted” is difficult to interpret, and “people is slum areas” obscures the intended meaning. There are also repeated forms of “recycle” and “waste,” which limits flexibility. Aim to use accurate phrases such as “sort household waste,” “people living in slum areas,” and “waste-management system,” and proofread spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a relative clause in “which can generate waste at alarming rate” and a conditional structure in “their organic waste can reuse.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence construction occur often enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. Examples include “One of the key reason,” “people is,” and “their organic waste can reuse,” where the subject–verb relationship or verb form is faulty. Punctuation also needs attention, as in “population growth ,which” and “handle.For instance.” Practise building accurate sentences around one main idea, then check subject–verb agreement, articles and whether a verb needs an object or passive form.

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