Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-27

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 nations, individuals do not recycle their waste such as newspapers or bottles as much as they could. This essay aims to analyse the underlying reasons behind this phenomena before suggesting some viable solutions to address the issue.

One compelling contributor for this challenge is lack of concentration on environmental issues among citizens. This is to say that people are not aware about the circumstances that they may have to suffer from because of their laziness. For example, today in many countries among the world the plastic waste is increasing constantly, because people's have no knowledge about the difficulties of this. In addition to it, their is an absence of government initiatives to improve recycling habits among the population. Reuse of rubbish is not possible because there are inconvenient facilities like there are no proper dustbins for waste disposal, no concerned area for repurposing the waste.

There are several measures to combat the problem. The major on is that if the authorities of the country will implement strict laws of repurposing the waste material. To clarify, the government should have to take actions to solve the problem. For instance, they can impose penalty on the individuals who will not follow the rules. Moreover, the government can also launch awareness campaigns to provide adequate knowledge to the natives of the country. These campaigns will be successful only if there will be proper infrastructure, and facilities of waste disposal.

In conclusion, waste management is not associated with the government only and to tackle the problems the citizens also have to put their efforts in reusing the waste material and solve the problem of pollution from the world.

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 government infrastructure and the need for public awareness. However, the development is somewhat superficial. For instance, the explanation of why people lack 'concentration' on environmental issues is vague and could be supported with more concrete examples beyond a general mention of plastic waste. The conclusion is a bit repetitive and does not fully synthesize the points made. To reach a higher band, ensure that each reason and solution is fully explored with specific, logical consequences or examples.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'In addition to it', 'For instance', and 'Moreover', though some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the link between the lack of government initiatives and the specific infrastructure problems could be smoother. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the problem from the solution. Overall, the flow is sufficient to guide the reader through the argument without significant confusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific language like 'waste management', 'repurposing', and 'infrastructure'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'lack of concentration on environmental issues' (which should be 'lack of awareness' or 'apathy') and 'inconvenient facilities' (which is slightly unnatural in this context). The range is sufficient but lacks the precision and sophistication required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the world'), subject-verb agreement ('people's have no knowledge'), and homophones ('their is an absence'). Some sentence constructions are slightly awkward, such as 'The major on is that if the authorities... will implement'. These errors are noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding the message. Increasing the frequency of error-free complex sentences would improve the score.

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.