Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-23

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 countries of the world , recycling rate remain lower than they could be , despite growing concern of environment pollution. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness and less recycling facilities. However, this problem can be addressed through better education and improvement in waste management system.

There are several reasons people fail to recycle their waste . one of the main cause is lack of awareness of about environmental hazard of improper waste disposal . For example people are not aware that plastic can remain in the environment for many years and causes serious harm to the wildlife and the surrounding. Another reason is lack of recycling facilities. If recycling bins are not easily accessible , people mostly throw all the garbage into the same bins.

Furthermore, there are several measure can be adopted by the authorities to tackle these problem. Firstly, Government should run social awareness campaigns through educational institute and school about the importance of recycling waste. This would help people to understand about the harmful effect of waste on the environment. Secondly, local authorities should provide sperate bins for their rubbish in residential and public areas to ensure that waste is collected regularly.

In conclusion ,lack of awareness and less recycling facilities growing the concern of environment pollution. However these problem can be tackles by better education , social awareness campaigns and improvement in the waste management system where people can easily accessible to the recycling bins. and make some rules where people should take these things more serious .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for low recycling rates and potential solutions. The ideas are relevant, such as the lack of awareness and the need for better infrastructure. However, the development is somewhat basic. For instance, the suggestion to 'make some rules' in the conclusion is vague and lacks specific detail. While the position is clear throughout, the response would benefit from more depth in the supporting arguments to reach a higher band. The structure is logical, and the response covers all requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Furthermore', 'Firstly', and 'Secondly', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are mechanical, and there are instances where the flow is slightly disrupted by grammatical errors, such as in the final sentence of the conclusion where the phrasing 'where people can easily accessible to the recycling bins' is awkward and impacts the logical progression. Overall, the paragraphing is appropriate, and the progression of ideas is generally easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the student to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'environmental hazard', 'waste disposal', and 'waste management system'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'less recycling facilities' (should be 'fewer') and 'growing the concern' (should be 'increasing the concern'). The range is sufficient to communicate the message, but it lacks the precision and flexibility required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('recycling rate remain', 'these problem can be tackles') and missing articles ('Government should', 'in residential and public areas'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with some spacing errors before commas and periods. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points, they are frequent enough to limit the score. More attention to proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy is needed.

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

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