Okay, that's good news, so that means it's not something borked up with the build. for the microwave you just need to make sure you went through all the rings, the jar of food is in, the door is closed and the tooltip saying to turn it on is showing (oh, and you can't have anything else in the microwave :D ) then you just press the button.
A couple other people were saying on the quest they weren't able to get past the trash part, so hearing it worked for you makes me think maybe it was conditions not met, or perhaps finnicky colliders. Thanks again for the feedback!