Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 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 6.0)

Recycling is one of the key factors when it comes to sustainability. Some believe that everyone should contribute their part towards recycling as much as they can so that the limited resources such as wood and metals don't get used as much since they can used in manufacturing in some other products, while others argue that recycling is relatively expensive and time consuming than using new resources. In my view, recycling is the way forward since the cost of recycling is much smaller than the environmental damage of using new resources.

The biggest reason of pollution are the massive piles of plastic waste and used wrecked cars, if governments start regulating car companies to start to using wrecked cars and melt these cars to extract the metal and mold it to create a new car which will reduce the need of digging the earth to find and manufacture these metals and the same can be done for the plastic waste. Recycling will lead to more people to use more sustainable products in their daily lives such as metal straws or metal storage boxes so that they don't break as easily and there's not a need to buy more boxes in the future and it can be cheaper in the long term. Another thing that the government can do is to subsides companies that are using recycled waste to encourage them to continue using manufacturing recycled products and incentive the public by paying to recycle their plastic waste which can be late sold to different organization.

On the other hand, the process of recycling waste is a expensive and time-consuming since companies will have to purchase new machinery to recycle waste and hire more people to operate those machines and with no guarantee that the recycled product will have the same strength as before. Many people also don't want to have the burden of cleaning their utensils such as spoons, straws or boxes, these are the kind of products that are thrown away after a one time use.

I believe, recycling has more environmental advantages than disadvantages which can stop climate change and pollution all over the world, and encourage the public to recycle more by governmental incentive.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed both parts of the prompt: reasons for low recycling rates and potential solutions. Your position is clear from the introduction. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the second paragraph offers concrete suggestions like government subsidies, the third paragraph—which discusses the disadvantages of recycling—is slightly confusing in the context of the prompt, as it focuses on why people might avoid recycling rather than fully exploring the 'what can be done' aspect. To reach a higher band, ensure that every paragraph directly contributes to answering the two specific questions asked in the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas. You use some cohesive devices, such as 'On the other hand' and 'In my view', to signal transitions. However, some connections are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as the transition between the discussion of car manufacturing and the mention of metal straws. Additionally, some sentences are quite long and run-on, which occasionally obscures the logical flow. Using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence would improve the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'sustainability', 'manufacturing', and 'environmental damage'. There are some instances of imprecise word choice, such as 'subsides' instead of 'subsidize' and 'late sold' instead of 'later sold'. You also rely on some repetitive phrasing, such as 'using' and 'recycling'. To improve, try to incorporate more precise collocations and synonyms to avoid repetition. While your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, it lacks the sophistication and precision required for higher band scores.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with verb forms and sentence construction. For example, 'they can used' should be 'they can be used', and 'the biggest reason of pollution are' should be 'the biggest causes of pollution are'. There are also issues with punctuation and run-on sentences, such as the long sentence in the second paragraph starting with 'if governments start...'. These errors do not generally impede communication, but they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score.

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

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