I am living in a few story buildings where residents are mostly locals, i.e. owning the apartments and being either Swiss by birth or residing here for a long time. It’s in the canton of Zug, here we typically have one central collection place per a larger municipality.
I am easily accumulating lots of cardboard (Galaxus/Amazon, and smaller ones after fruits/vegetables, after eggs, after yoghurts etc.) after a week, and then I am either dropping them in the garbage collection place or stashing them in large bags in the basement.
So, what surprises me, is that I am almost never seeing my neighbours on the stairs or by the building carrying a taxed bag let alone cardboard which makes me wonder, are the Swiss extreme non-consumers unlike myself? Or it’s just a timing issue? I wonder if you’ve had the same observation.
They carry it down in the early hours of the morning with a non taxed bag.
I’m usually hurriedly chucking the bin bag in the outside wheelie bin as I’m rushing out to work. It never even occurred to me to check on my neighbours’ habits.
As for recycling; it happens when the recycling space in our downstairs is bursting at the seams, we’ve all had a good row about who’s f@&#ing turn is it is this time, and one of us schlepps it with gritted teeth down to wherever it goes. Again, I wouldn’t have a clue what the neighbours’ habits or frequency might be.
I hope I did not sound like spying on my neighbours, it’s just bizarre I haven’t accidentally bumped into anyone taking out cardboard garbage for more than a year =)
Apparently, many drive to Germany and dump their rubbish bags in the roadside hedgerows there.
Maybe their bodies have been taken over by aliens who dissolve cardboard and flush it away.
I didn’t even see a neighbour for 2 years in spite of living in one of the 3 flats on the same floor in a building with one lift and he worked at the same employer. We only met accidentally at a mutual friend’s party. Chance of seeing hime emptying bins at the same time would be less likely than winning the lottery!
I had a German neighbor that collected all the plastic in “yellow sacks” and supposedly made regular runs over the border to buy new food and dispose of the “yellow sacks”.
The cardboard you can usually dispose of locally at the Oeki-Hof (in Zug).
Is it even legal to carry trash over to Germany? As I am reading more of your answers I am starting to think it’s not a joke.
I watched a YT once who told a story that one of his employers and landlords in one was so upset he was doing shopping in Germany that he forced him to also carry trash bags there 
Well, it’s a gray area.
The question is: where does he deposit them?
Usually, there are only certain days you can put them out on the streets - but some cities may have place where you can deposit them outside of that.
Or they have relatives who help them with that.
Did he have a family in Germany? Or where did he get these bags? In Austria you get them for free from the the gemeinde where you are registered. I’m not sure that it’s possible to buy them.
It’s illegal to import rubbish into Germany
One time I was in a German Customs control that was looking for such, not that I had any.
I’m near 100% home office so I can spy on the neighbors hahaha.
Sometimes I go for a walk after lunch, I see all the boxes near the door and I bring them inside. From the 16 apartments, 3-4 neighbors make most of the purchases online. I’m only making sure that the box I bring into the building stair case if effectively addressed to one of the neighbors hahaha
I always surprise myself how 5 mins with the cutter reduces the volume of carton. We went for wine a couple months ago, several cartons of wing plus some food packaging and the bundle was smaller than carry-on luggage. I guess that if you cut the carton a bit, the volume reduces a lot.
I think this is a very broad topic. Some Swiss people are very financially litterate - so they are very good with money, wealth management and wealth building. Wealth isn’t built by spending most of what you earn, so naturally, this leads to a lot of Swiss people being savy. Combine that with a good education system and a lot of opportunities to invest in the last 70+y and you are where we are now.
In my experience, Swiss people are definetly more savy than most other European nations. The Swiss state also has a lot of incentives to do so - like 2nd or 3rd pillars, no taxes on capital gains, etc. But then again, there are also enough Swiss people who buy the best pair of Ski every year and a new expensive MTB when they start biking again, etc.
TLDR: It depends 
I’ve always wondered if there was some sort of a home compact cardboard shredder, but I haven’t researched it because my wife had immediately rejected the idea of having this sort of a machine in the apartment. =)
It’s a culture in our building as well, everyone seems to be doing it and also the post would normally try doing it, but it depends on the person. I am also bringing it sometimes to my floor if I am seeing that it’s my direct neighbour, but I am not sure if it’s well seen =)
Lucky day 
Yes, I know but I was thinking of something more efficient and powerful.. =)
PS I guess it’s yet another object falling into the eternal bottomless category “If one day I have my own house/apartment..”
But then you will need space to store it…
I’m aware of people going to the dump in germany on the weekend when they do their weekly/biweekly shop…
I haven’t tried, but do believe that places like this: https://abfall-landkreis-waldshut.de/ will accept normal garbage for free.
Personally I just bring everything to the recycling center near home, pay by the kg, and so far, it’s MASSIVELY cheaper than the taxed bags (as it’s paid by kg and not by volume)