Task 1 Academic · Pie chart · Environment
Where a city's household waste ended up
Two pie charts in which landfill loses its lead to recycling, and in which the quiet growth of incineration is the detail only one answer weighs.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The pie charts below show how household waste was disposed of in one city in 2000 and in 2025.
| Disposal method | 2000 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Landfill | 64 | 21 |
| Incineration | 18 | 24 |
| Recycling | 11 | 36 |
| Composting | 4 | 16 |
| Other | 3 | 3 |
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
Landfill gave up 43 points and the three main alternatives took all of them; the 6.5 answer reads the two pies separately, the 7.5 sees the reversal, and the 9 also sees that part of the gain went to burning rather than recovery.
The three answers
Band 6.5
168 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The pie charts show the information about the ways that household waste was disposed in one city in 2000 and 2025.
In 2000, the landfill was the most common method with 64 per cent of the waste. The incineration was 18 per cent and the recycling was 11 per cent. The composting was only 4 per cent and the other methods was 3 per cent, so they were the smallest. This means that most of the waste went to the landfill in this year.
In 2025 the situation was very different.2 The landfill decreased to 21 per cent, but the recycling increased to 36 per cent and it became the most common method. The incineration increased to 24 per cent and the composting increased to 16 per cent, which is four times bigger than before. The other methods was the same with 3 per cent.4
Overall, the landfill decreased a lot and the other methods increased1, so the city is more environmental friendly in 2025 than in 20003.
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, the landfill decreased a lot and the other methods increased”
Too general, and slightly wrong: the category actually called 'Other' did not move. The overview needed the reversal — recycling and composting rose from 15 to 52 per cent while landfill fell to 21.
2. Coherence and cohesion
“In 2025 the situation was very different.”
A promise of comparison, followed by a second list. Organising by year means landfill's 64 and 21 sit a paragraph apart.
3. Lexical resource
“so the city is more environmental friendly in 2025 than in 2000”
A word-form error ('environmentally'), and a conclusion about the city that the charts do not support or ask for.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“The other methods was the same with 3 per cent.”
Plural subject, singular verb, unnecessary article — the same combination appears earlier in the answer, which marks it as a pattern rather than a slip.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 Academic · Pie chart
Energy use in an older and a newly built house
Two pie charts with very different totals, where a slice that doubles can stand for the same energy — and only the band 9 answer converts shares into kilowatt-hours consistently.
- Task 1 Academic · Pie chart
How household spending changed over thirty years
Two pie charts thirty years apart, where the gains and the losses cancel out exactly — a pattern only one of the three answers notices.
- Task 1 Academic · Pie chart
Office, hybrid and remote working at one company
Three pie charts in which a dramatic middle year turns out to be the least lasting change — the answers differ in whether they see that the real winner grew only afterwards.