Systems and methods for liberating materials of interest from an item, and sorting those materials. Systems and methods may separate shredded material of an item into shredded material that contains ferrous metal, and remaining shredded material, and sort the remaining shredded material into fine material, light material, and heavy material. Systems and methods may separate the heavy material into heavy material that contains ferrous metal and remaining heavy material, separate the light material into light material that contains ferrous metal and remaining light material, and sort the remaining light material into at least a first type of remaining light material and a second type of remaining light material.