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?
Sample Response
People’s participation in waste recycling and legal requirements regarding this is a moot issue. Whether people should voluntarilyspontaneously take part in the recycling process or governments should make it a legal obligation needs a thorough discussion. I personally believe that governments should enactimpose laws and impose substantial fines on violatorsseverely fine the violators to ensure proper waste recycling.
To begincommence with, the state manages waste recyclingwaste recycling is done by the state and citizens are expected to properly separate the recyclable and non-recyclable wastegarbage and sort it accordingly before placing it in recycling binspack them accordingly while dumping them in recycle bins. They are expected to play an active rolecooperate greatly in the recycling process. However, it is concerning thatit is a strange fact that many people do not participate voluntarilypartake in it spontaneously because of negligence or lack of timeeither from their negligence or from their lack of time to do so. Therefore, making recycling mandatorymaking it a law and imposing fines for non-compliancefines for violating it can greatly improve people's participation in recycling.
Moreover, it is a concerning reality thatit is a harsh truth that many people abide by rules only out of fear of punishment or finesfrom the concern of punishment or fine, not from their conscience. For instance, when the penalty for traffic rule violations went up last year, people started following them in my city. Similarly, if laws are introduced and the authorities start penalising offendersthe authority starts penalising, more people would recycle more of their household waste.
Finally, waste recycling is essential to protect our environment, and we already have many rules to protect our environment. While deforestation is a severe crime in my country, there is no visible law for not recycling waste. This is why people are very careless about their waste management in our country. Therefore, proper laws related to waste recycling are required.
In conclusion, most of the citizens in our country already know about the importance of saving the environment and how individual efforts of recycling can improve environmental conditions. Since many of them still do not take part in waste recycling, there is no alternative butthan to impose laws to have this done.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The essay maintains a clear position that recycling laws are necessary and develops it through behavioural reasoning, a traffic-law analogy, and comparison with other environmental regulation. Its main limitation is that several points repeat the same enforcement claim, while frequent unnatural collocations reduce polish. The highest-priority improvement is to deepen one causal explanation and refine the language used for compliance, penalties, and household recycling.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The question is fully addressed with a consistent position and multiple relevant reasons, although development sometimes repeats rather than extends the central claim.
Explain more precisely how legal duties and penalties would change household sorting behaviour and acknowledge the limits of enforcement.
Coherence and Cohesion
The five-paragraph structure and progression from participation to deterrence and environmental regulation are clear, with only some repetitive signposting and ideas.
Give each body paragraph a distinct function and use transitions that show how the second and third reasons add to the first.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient range for environmental policy and enforcement, but several expressions such as “severely fine,” “concern of punishment,” and “visible law” are unnatural.
Use precise collocations such as impose substantial fines, fear of punishment, legal requirement, and comply with recycling rules.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The essay uses varied complex sentences, but errors in agreement, articles, conditionals, pronouns, and prepositions remain noticeable throughout.
Proofread subject-verb agreement and conditional forms, especially where singular authorities, plural citizens, and hypothetical results are described.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
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?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.