Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people claim that not enough of the waste from homes is recycled. They say that the only way to increase recycling is for governments to make it a legal requirement.

To what extent do you think laws are needed to make people recycle more of their waste?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

It is widely contended that household waste is not significantly recycled, and they believe that if governments make a law, it can rise waste recyclation process. I strongly agree that government should implement rules which ultimately increases the recycling of domestic wastes.

Everyday, each city recieves huge amount of wastes from houses, which effects air pollution of that city. The garbage in streets and from houses pollute our environment. There are not proper recycling machines in many cities, and if governments introduces more machines in every street, the citizens can reycle their daily waste which will benefit the city's atmosphere and cleanliness. For instance, many cities of Pakistan are very polluted due to domestic garbage. Three cities of Pakistan are always in the top 10 list of world's worst AQI level. Therefore, the governments should build more recycling units to protect their cities and people from dangerous wastes which will consequently cause many dieseases as well.

The household waste has a very poisonous smell. The dumping sites often lead towards the production of number of diseases. If the garbage is not recycled properly, for example, it will cause diseases in humans and we also see this in our hospitals, where there is no bed for new patients. The diseases from wastes are very dangerous for human health and they cannot be cured effectively. It is responsibility of governments to fund for recycling plants which will subsequently reduces the burden of new hospitals on them, and instead, it could be spent on units by which the air pollution can be managed.

To summarize this, I think governments should take the responsibilty by allocating funds for recycling units, and this will help our environment and furthermore, it will protect humans as well from risky diseases. The clean atmosphere is a key for the betterment of our population

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether governments should make recycling a legal requirement, though the focus occasionally drifts toward general pollution and health issues rather than strictly the necessity of laws. The writer takes a clear position in the introduction ('I strongly agree that government should implement rules...'), which is maintained throughout the essay. Ideas are extended with examples from Pakistan and mention of AQI levels, though some arguments, such as hospital bed shortages, are slightly over-generalized and under-developed in terms of their direct link to recycling laws. Overall, all parts of the task are addressed, earning a Band 6.0 according to the descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a concluding summary. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas, such as environmental impacts in the second paragraph and health consequences in the third. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. For instance, referencing is unclear in phrases like 'and they believe' in the opening sentence, where the antecedent is ambiguous. Transitional phrases like 'To summarize this' are somewhat repetitive and basic, though logical progression is maintained throughout, fitting the Band 6.0 criteria well.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, incorporating topic-specific terms such as 'domestic wastes', 'recycling units', 'air pollution', and 'AQI level'. However, there are notable word-choice errors and non-standard forms, such as 'recyclation' instead of 'recycling', 'recieves' (spelling), and 'dieseahses' / 'dieseases' instead of 'diseases'. Less common lexical items are attempted but occasionally lack precision or natural collocation. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing conditionals and relative clauses such as 'if governments introduce more machines... citizens can recycle...'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('every city recieves huge amount of wastes', 'government should implement rules which ultimately increases'), incorrect article usage ('the governments', 'a key'), and punctuation errors. While these errors do not completely obscure the message, they occur frequently enough to prevent the essay from reaching Band 6.0, landing firmly at Band 5.5.

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

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