Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-29

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)

The recycling of rubbish is done less in the 3rd world countries or the developing or under-developed countries. Here people's day-to-day lives have many more complexities to solve, financial problems, future thinking of their children and the norms of growing up in not recycling system in their own families.

An average middle-class family scenario would be like, both or one of the parents or earning member will go to their offices. So, the other member or any hired worker will work in home, help in nurturing the children, take them to school then do their home decors and cooking and everything. They are not thinking anything close to recycle their rubbish. They will either throw outside of the windows and balconies or store them in buckets, then throw them outside in certain places where everyone throws their trashes usually.

Besides, street foods and people consuming anything on streets will throw their rubbish randomly in the drain from where these rubbish will flow through the sewerage system and end up in the rivers . These will eventually pollute the rivers, too.

The families growing up shows this kind of behavior of not recycle trashes and somehow this became the new norm in most of the under-developed or developing countries.

But, the most disturbing is factories and industries. They do not maintain their rubbish system and just dump them to close water-bodies. They don't want to invest anything behind the trash management and will take the extra money and easy route.

Most importantly, the government do not take any initiative to resolve this rubbish management system.

To change this, we need to break the generational cycle of norm and to educate our next generations to how to recycle the trash and the importance of it and also warn them about the hazards this may cause if they do not recycle the trash properly. Nowadays, we see the changing human behavior and government is also taking a little bit by bit initiatives to recycle.

In the end, I think the main problem in our mind about the recycling is this does not earn any money for us and as capitalist human, we do not do the things which does not help us in any currencies. The change of this mentality is highly needed.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the question: it gives reasons for low recycling, including household priorities, established habits, littering, industrial dumping and limited government action, then proposes education and a change in attitudes. The final point that people may see recycling as financially unrewarding also gives a clear overall explanation. However, some ideas are asserted rather than fully explained. For example, the discussion of a middle-class household describes domestic routines at length but does not clearly show why these prevent recycling or what practical barriers are involved. The proposed solutions focus mainly on educating future generations; adding specific measures such as convenient collection points, separate bins, enforcement or incentives would make the response more complete and better supported.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is an overall progression from causes to possible change and a concluding view, and paragraph breaks help distinguish household, street and industrial issues. Linking expressions such as “Besides,” “But,” and “To change this” signal shifts in the discussion. However, the sequence within the causes is sometimes list-like, and the long household paragraph combines several details without a clear central point. Some references are also unclear: “these rubbish” and “these” in the river paragraph do not identify their referents precisely. The conclusion introduces the financial motivation idea quite late rather than drawing together the earlier causes and solutions. Grouping related causes into clearer paragraphs and using more precise links between claims would improve progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “recycle,” “trash management,” “sewerage system,” “pollute,” “industries” and “generational cycle.” These choices make the main subject clear, and the writer attempts to express broader ideas about social norms and incentives. However, several word choices and collocations are noticeably inaccurate or repetitive, such as “home decors,” “throw their trashes,” “close water-bodies,” and “take the extra money and easy route.” Repeated use of “rubbish,” “trash” and “recycle” also limits flexibility. Aim for more natural combinations and precise terms—for example, “household waste,” “nearby waterways,” and “avoid the cost of waste treatment.” This would make the argument clearer and more idiomatic.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response attempts both simple and more extended sentence forms, including explanations with “where” and “from where,” and the meaning is generally understandable. Some sentences are controlled, such as “These will eventually pollute the rivers, too.” However, errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence construction recur. Examples include “both or one of the parents or earning member will go,” “the government do not take,” and “the families growing up shows.” The opening sentence is also a fragment, while “to educate our next generations to how to recycle” has an incorrect grammatical pattern. Review subject–verb agreement and build complex sentences around a clear main clause; careful editing of these patterns would improve accuracy without sacrificing range.

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