Plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic packaging are bad for the environment. What damage does plastic do to the environment? What can be done by governments and individuals to solve this problem?
Sample Response
Plastic is used extensively because it is cheap and convenient, but it has severe environmental impacts. Plastic is not biodegradable, and the damage caused to the environment, especially to farmlands, oceans and marine life due to our love for plastic, is profound and should be stopped immediately. In this essay, I will outline the harms plastic causes to the environment and explore what could be done by governments and individuals to solve this problem.
The damages that plastic causes to the mother planet are significant and irreversible. Plastic bags, cutleries, bottles, and packaging are not biodegradable, and they take thousands of years to decompose. This means that once we discard plastic-made goods, they will remain in the environment for an extensive amount of time. It severely degrades the fertility of farming lands all around the world. Moreover, plastic that finds its way into the body of water or oceans can be particularly harmful, as it can entangle and suffocate animals living there. Plastic, that reaches the water, can also be ingested by animals and fishes there, causing injury or death to these species. According to the Natural Environment data, approximately a hundred thousand sea turtles and other marine animals die each year because they get entangled in plastic items.
To solve the problems caused by plastics, authorities and individuals need to take immediate action. First, governments, all around the world, can impose strict environmental laws, such as banning the use of plastic bags and promoting the use of biodegradable and renewable resources without delay. They can also impose hefty taxes on plastic products to discourage their use and manufacturing. Additionally, governments can organize numerous environmental awareness campaigns and programmes to educate the general public about the dangers of plastic and the benefits of using biodegradable and renewable alternatives.
The general public can also make a difference by reducing their use of plastic bags, bottles, and packaging which will have a huge positive impact in curbing the detrimental effects of plastics. They can do this by using reusable bags made of jute or clothes, glass bottles and containers, and by choosing to use products that have almost no packaging requirements. Additionally, mass people can support businesses that use sustainable packaging, which can help keep millions of tons of plastic materials out of landfills every year.
In conclusion, without a doubt, plastic is bad for the environment as it causes significant damage to our mother planet. We need to act now to stop the spread of plastic towards making a world free of plastic contamination and help the planet, especially the ocean, retain its biodiversity.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use uncountable noun Original: damages Suggested revision: damage Why it matters: “Damage” is uncountable when referring generally to environmental harm.
- 2. Use formal wording Original: the mother planet Suggested revision: the planet Why it matters: The simpler term is more natural in a formal academic essay.
- 3. Use uncountable form Original: cutleries Suggested revision: cutlery Why it matters: “Cutlery” is an uncountable noun and does not take a plural ending here.
- 4. Natural time phrase Original: an extensive amount of time Suggested revision: an extremely long time Why it matters: “Extremely long time” is a more natural collocation for duration.
- 5. Clarify the reference Original: It severely degrades Suggested revision: Plastic waste severely degrades Why it matters: Naming the subject removes the unclear reference of “It” to the preceding sentence.
- 6. Use standard noun Original: farming lands Suggested revision: farmland Why it matters: “Farmland” is the natural term for land used for agriculture.
- 7. Fix number and scope Original: body of water or oceans Suggested revision: bodies of water, including oceans Why it matters: The plural form agrees with the general reference, and “including” removes the overlap between the categories.
- 8. Remove incorrect commas Original: Plastic, that reaches the water, Suggested revision: Plastic that reaches the water Why it matters: A restrictive “that” clause should not be separated from its noun by commas.
- 9. Use natural category Original: animals and fishes there Suggested revision: marine animals Why it matters: This concise category avoids the awkward plural “fishes” and the vague location word “there.”
- 10. Use uncountable noun Original: plastics Suggested revision: plastic Why it matters: “Plastic” is uncountable when referring to the material in general.
- 11. Remove unnecessary commas Original: governments, all around the world, can Suggested revision: governments all around the world can Why it matters: The location phrase is integral to the subject and should not be set off by commas.
- 12. Restore noun parallelism Original: manufacturing Suggested revision: manufacture Why it matters: The coordinated nouns should use parallel forms after “their.”
Suggested Rewrites
- damages damage
- the mother planet the planet
- cutleries cutlery
- an extensive amount of time an extremely long time
- It severely degrades Plastic waste severely degrades
- farming lands farmland
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response fully addresses environmental damage and offers clearly separated, well-developed actions for governments and individuals, with strong progression throughout. Its main limitation is imprecise or unnatural wording in otherwise wide-ranging language, including several awkward collocations and plural forms. The highest-priority improvement is to refine lexical precision and grammatical control so the detailed ideas are expressed more naturally and concisely.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both parts of the task are fully addressed through developed environmental impacts and practical measures for governments and individuals.
Strengthen the response further by qualifying broad claims and ensuring supporting examples are clearly credible and necessary.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is clearly organised into damage, government action, and individual action, with well-managed progression throughout.
Reduce minor repetition between the introduction and conclusion to make the overall progression more concise.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a broad topic-specific range, but several unnatural collocations and word forms reduce lexical precision.
Use more idiomatic alternatives for phrases such as 'mother planet,' 'mass people,' and 'plastic contamination.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide variety of complex sentences is generally controlled, though punctuation, agreement, article, and number errors remain noticeable.
Review relative clauses, plural forms, and comma placement so complex sentences remain accurate as well as varied.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic packaging are bad for the environment. What damage does plastic do to the environment? What can be done by governments and individuals to solve this problem?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.