An industrial shredder is a machine used to break down materials for various applications such as recycling, volume reduction, and product destruction. Industrial shredders come in many different sizes and design variations based on what particle size is needed for final shredded product.

The main categories of designs used today are as follows: low speed, high torque shear type shredders of single, dual, triple and quad shaft design, single shaft grinders of single or dual shaft design, granulators, knife hogs, raspers, maulers, flails, crackermills, and refining mills. Industrial shredder components include a rotor, counter blades, housing, motor, transmission system, power system and electrical control system.

Some examples of materials that are commonly shredded are: tires, metals, construction and demolition debris, wood, plastics, leathers, papers and garbage, such as commercial and mixed waste. The industrial shredder is commonly used to process materials into different sizes for separation or to reduce the cost of transport. Waste materials such as municipal solid waste, radioactive waste, medical waste, and hazardous waste are shredded in treatment and disposal systems.

Because the hardness of materials differs, the blades on shredders are also slightly different.

An industrial shredder is any shredder that can be used in an industrial application (rather than a consumer application). They can be equipped with different types of cutting systems: horizontal shaft design, vertical shaft design, single-shaft, two-shaft, three-shaft and four-shaft cutting systems. These shredders are slow speed or high speed, and are not restricted in being classified as an industrial shredder by their speed or horsepower. Small, low-cost portable shredders have been developed; these are often suitable for personal use as well as for small scale industry.