I could have sworn I posted this idea once, but couldn't find it, so maybe I didn't, but:
There are various methods to separate plastics from glass from paper for trash/recycling.
One additional way might be to use a vortex tower after chopping up the trash into bits. The lighter stuff like paper
and plastic will fly higher, stuff like glass lower. You put duct at different heights to catch the different average-weight materials.
there will of course be an issue of whether the garbage is wet, wet paper will be heavier than dry.
I need to go get our lunch, so I wrote this rather quickly/trite