Systems and methods for separating materials and recovery of valuable materials such as from end-of-life vehicles and appliances are disclosed. Vehicles are shredded and resulting pieces are dropped into a fluidic separator that separates the shredded vehicle scrap into heavier pieces and lighter pieces. The fluidic separator separates the bulk of the more valuable metals of the non-metals. The fluidic separator, which may be used for separating many kinds of mixtures of pieces of varying specific gravity, comprises a fluid-filled container in which the pieces and the fluid are stirred so that pieces of specific gravity greater than that of the fluid tend to sink and pieces of specific gravity less than that of the fluid tend to float.