CD IELTS Prep
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Task 2 · Problem and solution · Environment

Plastic waste reaching the oceans

A problem-solution essay on marine plastic, where the weaker answers reach for recycling and the strongest one explains why recycling was never going to be enough.

The question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

Large quantities of plastic waste end up in the world's oceans every year. What do you think are the main reasons for this, and what could be done to address the situation?

A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. 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

All three want less plastic in the sea; only the band 9 answer explains why the waste is produced faster than any collection system can capture it, and aims its solutions upstream of that.

The three answers

Band 6.5

263 words (the task asks for at least 250)

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

It is true that a huge amount of the plastic waste is going to the ocean every year and this is a very serious problem for our planet. In this essay, I am going to analyse the main reasons of this problem and also give some possible solutions.

There are several reasons for this problem. Firstly, people use too much plastic in their daily life. For example, when we go to the supermarket, everything is packed in the plastic, and we also buy the water in plastic bottles. Secondly, many people throw the rubbish in the street or in the river instead of the dustbin, and after that the rain carry this rubbish to the sea5. Moreover, in some developing countries there is not a good system of the waste management, so the rubbish is not collected properly and it goes to the environment.

However, this problem can be solved. Firstly, the government should ban the plastic bags3 and make a fine for the people who throw the rubbish in the street. Secondly, we should recycle more, because recycling is very good for the environment1 and it can reduce this problem a lot. In addition, the schools and the media should make awareness about this problem2, so people will understand and they will change their habit.

In conclusion, the main reasons of this problem are the excessive use of the plastic, the bad habits of the people and the poor waste management4, and it can be solved by the ban, the recycling and the awareness. Everybody should work together to save our ocean.

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Task response

    “we should recycle more, because recycling is very good for the environment”

    Circular. The claim is supported by restating the claim, and it does not connect to the collection failure identified as a cause a paragraph earlier.

  2. 2. Task response

    “the schools and the media should make awareness about this problem”

    The third of three solutions and the vaguest. Nothing here says who does what, or why awareness would change behaviour that is currently free.

  3. 3. Coherence and cohesion

    “However, this problem can be solved. Firstly, the government should ban the plastic bags”

    'Firstly' has already opened the previous paragraph. Reusing the same marker for a different list shows it is filling a slot rather than signalling meaning.

  4. 4. Lexical resource

    “the excessive use of the plastic, the bad habits of the people and the poor waste management”

    Three unnecessary definite articles in one clause. Article use with generic and abstract nouns is the single most visible lexical weakness here.

  5. 5. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “the rain carry this rubbish to the sea”

    Singular subject, plural verb — the kind of slip that recurs across the essay without ever preventing the reader from following it.

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.

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