Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-11-12
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)
People do not recycle their wastes as much as possible in a number of countries. I agree to this statement due to their indifferent behavior to recycle wastes as well as the lack of strict rules and regulations of the government.
Wastes can be a great source of recycling materials which can protect our environment from polluting and also protect the natural resources from the use as raw materials for product. Rubbishes are produced from different resources after we use it. For instance, Polythene, a material, we largely used in the daily basis, which is very harmful for our environment. It is not biodegradable and take about 200 years or more to degrade. Due to the presence of plastic or polythene, the growth of roots is impeded as a result the production of crops is also hindered. If we recycle those materials and reuse it, the number of plastic will lessen from the environment and we will not need to produce a lage number of plastic.
Additionally, the lack of rules and regulation of our govermnment is one of the reasons. The wastes that produce from our daily use, we dumped these together for our city corporation cleaner. If we separate the type of wastes and give it to the collector, it will be easy for them to recycle. For the lack of proper policy and steps people do not recycle wastes as much as they could.
In conclusion, though recycling is done by many countries, it remain unperfomed largely in many countries due to the proper management and ignorance.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
You identify two relevant reasons for low recycling—people’s indifference and weak government rules—and explain why recycling matters, using plastic pollution as an example. However, the response only partly fulfils the task: it gives more attention to the environmental benefits of recycling than to why people fail to recycle, and the proposed changes are limited mainly to separating waste and improving government policy. The conclusion mentions “proper management and ignorance” but does not clearly summarise practical solutions. Develop each part more evenly: explain specific barriers, such as inconvenient collection or lack of awareness, then give concrete measures and show how they would address those barriers.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs and a conclusion. The ideas generally follow a sensible order, and linking expressions such as “For instance,” “Additionally” and “In conclusion” help signal movement between points. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the paragraph beginning “Wastes can be a great source” shifts from recycling’s benefits to plastic’s effects without clearly connecting these points to why people do not recycle. Some references, including “those materials” and “these,” are also not fully precise. Use topic sentences that directly answer the question, and connect examples back to the stated cause or solution so the argument develops more consistently.
Lexical Resource: Band 6.0
You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “recycling materials,” “natural resources,” “biodegradable,” “policy” and “collector.” These choices allow you to discuss the subject and attempt some less common terms. At times, however, word choice and collocation are inaccurate or repetitive, as in “recycle their wastes,” “Rubbishes are produced” and “the growth of roots is impeded.” There are also spelling errors such as “lage” and “govermnment.” These do not prevent the reader from understanding the main ideas, but they reduce precision and naturalness. Build a bank of accurate environmental collocations and check spelling; for example, use “household waste,” “waste is collected” and “plastic pollution.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure in “If we separate the type of wastes and give it to the collector, it will be easy for them to recycle.” The main message is usually understandable, but some grammatical errors remain. For example, “which is very harmful … and take about 200 years” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “after we use it” does not agree clearly with the plural “resources.” The opening “I agree to this statement” also does not express the task response accurately. Several sentences have awkward clause construction, particularly “The wastes that produce from our daily use, we dumped these together.” Practise agreement, articles and sentence boundaries, and revise complex sentences to make their subjects and verbs clear.
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.