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Describe A Time When You Saw A Lot Of Plastic Waste: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Where and when did you see the plastic waste?
  • Why was there a lot of plastic waste?
  • What did you do after you saw it?
  • And explain what your thoughts were about this.
Show all 77 answers

Cue 1:Where and when did you see the plastic waste?

  • Begin by describing the location where you encountered the plastic waste, such as a beach, park, or riverbank.
  • Mention the time of year or specific occasion, like a festival or holiday, to give context to your experience.

Example

I saw a lot of plastic waste last summer at Juhu Beach in Mumbai. It was during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, a time when many people visit the beach to immerse idols. Unfortunately, after the celebrations, the beach was littered with plastic bags, bottles, and food wrappers.

Cue 2:Why was there a lot of plastic waste?

  • Explain the reasons behind the accumulation of plastic waste, such as lack of awareness or inadequate waste disposal facilities.
  • You can also mention the cultural practices that contribute to the problem, like the use of single-use plastics during festivals.

Example

The reason for the excessive plastic waste was mainly due to the large number of visitors who brought food and drinks in plastic containers. Many people were unaware of the environmental impact of their actions, and there were not enough bins available for proper disposal.

Cue 3:What did you do after you saw it?

  • Share your immediate reaction upon seeing the plastic waste and any actions you took.
  • Mention if you participated in any clean-up efforts or raised awareness about the issue.

Example

After seeing the plastic waste, I felt compelled to do something. I joined a local group that was organizing a beach clean-up the following weekend. We collected bags full of plastic and other debris, and it felt good to contribute to the environment.

Cue 4:And explain what your thoughts were about this.

  • Reflect on your feelings regarding the situation and the broader implications of plastic waste.
  • Discuss any changes in your behavior or perspective that resulted from this experience.

Example

Seeing the plastic waste made me really concerned about our environment. It made me realize how important it is to reduce plastic usage and promote recycling. Since then, I’ve started carrying my own reusable bags and bottles to minimize my plastic footprint.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, witnessing the plastic waste at Juhu Beach was an eye-opening experience. It highlighted the urgent need for awareness and action regarding plastic pollution. I believe that if we all take small steps, we can make a significant difference in protecting our environment.

    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer unclear. Avoid general statements that do not provide specific details about the location or situation of the plastic waste.

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    Tip

    Be specific about where and when you saw the plastic waste. Use descriptive language to paint a clear picture for the examiner.

    2: Lack of Personal Reflection

    Failing to share your personal thoughts can make your response less engaging. It's important to express how the experience affected you emotionally or intellectually.

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    Tip

    Include your feelings and thoughts about the plastic waste. Explain why it was significant to you and what you learned from the experience.

    Ignoring the Cause

    Not addressing why there was a lot of plastic waste can lead to an incomplete answer. Understanding the cause adds depth to your response.

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    Tip

    Discuss the reasons behind the plastic waste, such as local events or habits. This shows your awareness of environmental issues and enhances your answer.

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    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 6-7

    So, a few months back, I saw this huge heap of plastic waste which was thrown away on the roadside. It was the time, it was in the afternoon when I was traveling to my office and I had a midday schedule for that, so it was nearby a government office of pollution control department and still there was this waste, so I felt it was not a good place also to dispose the waste. There are many garages in the area, so I felt that due to poor maintenance of the garage or due to the poor balance of collecting the waste, the people threw the garbage on the roadside. I feel, I feel there must be some action taken by the pollution control board as it was right next to it and also I have seen that there is a vehicle which continuously moves on the road for collecting garbage waste, but it only collects from the residential area and the places where they have collected and kept it on the site, but it does not collect the garbage which is just thrown on the roadside, so that is the thing which has to be noted down and serious action should be taken by the municipality and the pollution control board which was right beside the place where the garbage was thrown.

    Band 6-7

    The time when I saw a lot of plastic waste was in childhood when I was reaching home after school. In our way to go home, there is a dump yard beside the road. There I saw a lot of plastic there. There are almost very huge number of plastic bottles, plastic covers, several plastic wastages there. The workers in the dump yard are separating the plastics from the waste and trying to recycle them. It is a good thing I saw it on the day. After I saw it on the day, I searched on the web and knew what plastic can do for our lives. Because this much of plastic is used by our people is because there is no awareness of the environmental pollution. We should teach people not to use plastic. Because plastic creates lot of pollution for our environment and for our soil. Why? Because it does not decompose fastly. It will take millions of years to decompose. My thought was to keep awareness in people with the help of government and others. Make some promotions.

    Band 6-7

    Well, this is an interesting topic for me because now a days seeing plastic waste near us is really quite simple and most of the people just ignore everything like that. Coming to the topic, I have seen the waste recently is in Arnagulam Junction South Railway Station and it was really a awful moment for me because there are so many waste even though when I walking by I can see most of the people getting the plastic bags and leaving it there. Because my glasses are straight, when I go straight I was really sad because even the awful smells this really annoyed me and it was like people always used to do that and they don't have any shame for that because like when even people throw their put in waste in that area, nobody just talk to them or even complain to the police. After hearing this thing or seeing this thing, I decided to do anything with that and I finally registered a complaint in online for police station and I told them that it was really a good area but people have changing the environment really worse and even by walking that area we can see that people are doing that bad thing to the nature and after that they told me that they will do what they have to do and after that I was really good, I was really happy for that and now it's all cleared and they have put camera on the nearby stores and the house and if anybody now wanna put, anybody wanna put that now, they will be caught and be punished in to the jail or to get a fine. Now I am really happy about that and I think that's a good thing to do because people have to learn about that because ruining your environment is not good for everybody else and if you want to waste, we have to get rid of it.

    Band 6-7

    As in this modern world, plastic waste is increasing day by day and caused pollution to the environment which damaged environment and atmosphere at alarming rate. Here I would like to talk about a time when I saw a lot of plastic waste. I vividly remember when I visited to Delhi to see off my elder brother to the airport, I saw that there was a lot of plastic waste other than the residential area. At that time, all over the city was green rather than the residential area where I saw a lot of plastic waste dumped into the outside the houses or buildings. In addition, a lot of individuals threw away their orange ends into the plots. Apart from this, they have a lot of plastic bags which put detrimental effect on the environment. At that time, I really thought that it was awful for the atmosphere and we are polluting our environment and indirectly we are threatening ourselves and human beings as well as animals. After visiting home, I thought to contact to municipality of Delhi and I searched the contact number of Delhi Municipality Commission. After that, I registered a complaint and I thought that there should be a stringent actions towards people who threw litter on the roads as well as it put detrimental factors should be overcome.

    Band 6-7

    So, I live in India and in India there's a lot of trash everywhere. When I go outside my house I can see trash everywhere. People like to litter everywhere. They throw plastic wraps, paper cups, and usual garbage everywhere. And nobody thinks about cleaning. Nobody likes to clean their neighborhoods. People like to litter everywhere. They even throw trash near their temples and mosques. The municipality, the people that are supposed to be cleaning all this, they don't bother cleaning. The trash collecting vehicle, whatever it is called, it doesn't even appear in our neighborhood. And people have complained about it. They have told the municipality to send their trash collection vehicle, but it never arrives. And that's why people keep throwing the trash anywhere they see fit. I mean, I saw one guy throwing trash near a playground and kids were playing there. It's so disgraceful. It's so disgusting. People have no civic sense in this country. It's so shameful.

    Band 6-7

    The time when I saw a lot of plastic waste was just two months ago when I was on a bridge. I was crossing a river and there was a small hole from which the river water was flowing because under the bridge a lot of plastic waste was gathered or I should say cluttered. It was mainly because of the local people around the river dumped the plastic waste. Every kind of plastic there were polythene bags, plastic covers, delivery covers, packages and everything and the garbage was dumped in the river itself and was not cleaned. So when I saw that I just checked what authority is responsible for cleaning this river, what rules and regulations are there, I thought why aren't there any rules and regulations and why is the authority not implementing those rules and why aren't they punishing the people who are dumping the waste there. So then I complained about the river on the website where the department of cleaning is responsible.

    Band 6-7

    Let me start this topic by giving a personal example. I moved to the city of Mumbai for my undergraduation studies and while I was there, I used to visit the beach quite often. One day when I went to the beach in the morning for the first time, I saw a lot of plastic waste randomly lying here and there and as it was a high tide day, a lot of it kept coming from the sea also. It made me really question the human ethics and the basic social values that people have these days. I saw so many people beside me still kept throwing stuff into the sea. I have been to the beach quite a few times now but it was really surprising to see how much the cleanliness had deteriorated over the years. Back then it was so clean and people were so mindful. So after seeing that, I really took it upon myself to organize a group and to bring together a group of people who would help me clean the beach. I was part of the social team in our college marketing department and I put it upon everyone in the team to make sure that we created a lot of awareness for this and got as many volunteers to help clean the beach. It was a very thrilling experience and it made me feel a lot better about my time and how we are spending our weekends. So we organized a one month beach cleanliness drive which was held every Sunday for four hours where we used to come together and clean the beach. It made me feel very happy.

    Band 6-7

    When I was traveling to Delhi last month for catching a flight, I came across a very large heap of garbage. On the entrance of a capital, I felt this was very horrendous. I was made to question the government on how this could be possible, what impression it would make on someone who comes to visit Delhi for the first time. The place had a lot of scavengers hovering over the heap of garbage. The place had a very foul smell. This made me think that if the people who live around it come in contact with such surroundings, this would lead to their deterioration of health, and not only it is impactful on their health, it is also impactful on their way of thinking, their mindset.

    Band 6-7

    This was a very fresh incident in my mind in last couple of days where I saw a lot of plastics beside a road very near to my house. It was dumped with a lot of garbage and it was stinking all around. I do often travel by this road and watching this made me very uncomfortable as plastic is a commodity which has to be ignored. And when such dumping grounds are created beside a road, it's very clear that people are not into a clean society or not bothered about what's going on. I did complain to the municipal corporation about this and asked them to clean the place as fast as possible. Moreover, a dog can try to have a bite in this plastic and then fall prey to it and also might lose his life. So it was very concerning for me and also it was terribly unhygienic. Plastic should be avoided and people should move towards paper when it comes to any work or any shopping that they do. But that waste beside the road made me feel responsible for my society.

    Band 6-7

    Plastic waste is a crucial problem that the society needs to take care of, else it will be having detrimental effect on our environment. Similar experience, I recently visited Varudhara for my weekly meeting with my state staff and there I saw a pile of plastic waste being dumped in the nearby river. For a moment I was frozen because the amount of it was humongous and it was obvious because it was Navratri time and people do have a lot of events in the nearby area. But I had a question why is that plastic dumped in a nearby river in the city where I thought that I could just go and stop them but as I had my meeting I couldn't do much. That made me wonder how human beings are using natural resources as a dumping ground for their own creation of a material like plastic. It is very sad to see how things are going out of the hay especially in terms of human developments and what is the detrimental side of it that we are not really thoughtful of. As human beings we need to take care of our subjects especially our development and how our creation is affecting the environment. It needs to be thought of and not just thought of but taken care of through actions, practical steps that are going to take and form or create a better...
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