Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-23

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 5.0)

Nowadays, one of the biggest problem of the world is rubbish and many companies and countires are trying to control it however still some countries does not care about it and that is reflecting in their economy.

First world countries are taking rubbish very seriously and using different methods to clear it. Some countries and people does not recycle their rubbish as much as they made and it totally because of awareness. Countries does not educate their people and i believe that its government responsibility to educate their people how to handle rubbish and how to recycle it.

They have to follow those countries who stopped plastic bags and start using paper bags which are easy to recycle, but people dont have education from their seniors and they follow the same path. Government should have to charge them for making their country dirty, same like UAE.

UAE is one of the cleanest country in the world, UAE government educate all their residents to follow strick rules and keep their country clean, however they are not having natural recycling process but they build big projects for recycling their rubbish, however that are getting full also and UAE is planing to build more because they know cleaning is one of the main point to develope.

In my opinion if someone or a country has to developed theirself or their economy, they should know how to handle their rebbish.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address both questions: you identify limited awareness and education as reasons for low recycling, and suggest education, restrictions on plastic bags, penalties, and investment in recycling facilities. The UAE example gives the response some relevant support. However, the causes and solutions are only briefly explained, and the final point about economic development does not clearly show how it follows from the discussion. The response is also 22 words below the 250-word minimum; the eight words copied from the task prompt were not counted. To strengthen the answer, explain more specifically why people fail to recycle—for example, inconvenient collection or lack of facilities—and show how each proposed measure would change behaviour.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a basic paragraph structure: it introduces the issue, discusses awareness, presents possible measures, and gives the UAE as an example before concluding. This makes the main topic generally easy to follow. However, progression between ideas is not always clear. For instance, the move from banning plastic bags to people following the same path is under-explained, and the UAE paragraph combines cleanliness rules, recycling projects, capacity problems, and future plans without clearly linking them. Repeated use of “however” also makes connections feel mechanical, while “they” in “they are getting full” has an unclear reference. Use clearer topic sentences and explain the relationship between each example and the point it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “recycle,” “plastic bags,” “paper bags,” “recycling process,” and “residents.” These terms help communicate the general subject, and phrases such as “government responsibility” show an attempt to express policy ideas. However, the range is limited and several choices or forms are inaccurate, sometimes making the meaning less precise: “one of the biggest problem,” “handle rubbish,” and “cleaning is one of the main point” do not express the intended ideas naturally. Spelling errors such as “countires,” “strick,” “planing,” and “rebbish” are also noticeable. Build a wider set of accurate collocations for causes and solutions, such as “raise public awareness” and “provide recycling facilities.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt some longer sentences and use clauses with “because,” “however,” and “if,” so the response is not limited entirely to short statements. Nevertheless, the range is restricted, and errors occur frequently in basic sentence patterns, agreement, and verb forms. Examples include “one of the biggest problem,” “Some countries and people does not recycle,” and “UAE is one of the cleanest country.” The sentence beginning “UAE government educate” also needs a correctly formed verb, while “if someone or a country has to developed” has an incorrect verb pattern. Several sentences join independent ideas with commas, which weakens punctuation and clarity. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement and verb forms, then use shorter, correctly punctuated sentences before adding more complex structures.

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.