Why does Switzerland pretend to be a recycling champion when we literally burn half our trash?

Okay, honest question because this has been bothering me more and more:
Why does Switzerland act like it's the global leader in recycling when we can't even recycle basic stuff like mixed plastics or tetrapak?

Everywhere else in Europe you just throw your plastic packaging into a recycling bin and it actually gets sorted. Here? Everything goes into the taxed bin liner so they can burn it. And we're somehow supposed to be proud of this?

It feels like the whole system is stuck in the 90s. They recycle PET, glass, aluminium… and then the moment you hand them anything slightly modern (multilayer packaging, films, tetrapak, yoghurt pots, soft plastics), they’re like:
“Ah yes, please put that in the expensive sack so we can incinerate it and call it energy recovery.”

Meanwhile Italy, France, Germany, Austria, NL, Scandinavia all built proper sorting plants ages ago.

What annoys me most is the PR. The constant “We’re so sustainable! <1% landfill!” Yeah, because you burn everything. “We recycle more than anyone!” No, you just recycle the easy stuff and pretend the rest doesn’t exist. “Incineration is ecological!” Sure, if you repeat it enough times, maybe people stop asking questions.

And then we get hit with bag taxes on materials that are actually recyclable — just not in Switzerland, because no one wants to invest in the infrastructure. So we’re basically paying extra because the system is outdated.

Swiss people genuinely believe the country is some recycling utopia, and honestly I think it’s just because the streets are clean. Clean ≠ sustainable.

It just blows my mind how behind the system is compared to the image they sell.