IELTS Writing Task 1: Recycling Plastic Bottles

The diagram illustrates the various stages involved in the recycling of plastic bottles. Overall, this cyclical process begins with the collection of discarded plastic bottles, which go through a series of processing stages before being turned into reusable products.

Starting with the initial five stages, unwanted plastic bottles are placed in trash bins and then collected by trucks which transport them to a recycling centre. There, they are sorted by hand, and any bottles unsuitable for recycling are removed. The selected bottles are compressed into blocks before being fed into a crusher, where they are broken down into small particles and subsequently washed in a tank.

Moving onto the remaining stages, the cleaned particles are transferred to another machine, which converts them into pellets. Following this, these pellets are heated at high temperatures to produce raw material. Finally, this material is stored in piles and used to manufacture a variety of products, such as plastic containers, shopping bags, clothing and pens. Some of these finished items may eventually be discarded into trash bins and re-enter the recycling cycle.