If you have a reasonably small garden, then perhaps a shredder is useful, but don't underestimate the time and effort needed to shred things. When in the UK we had beech hedges around the whole garden and I used to try to shred all the clippings with an electric shredder. It took so long that instead I wasted my money on a petrol shredder which was always jamming and was so noisy and fuel hungry that it was far worse to use.

Now we have a smallholding, using an electric shredder is impossible given the amount of stuff we have, but we find we get the same results by driving an old rotary lawnmower over the clippings. Anything larger can be put in a mound and left to rot for a year or two, or if it's large enough cut up for use on the wood stove.
I got fed up with shredders as even the best used to jam or go blunt, and the effort taken for the amount of eventual compost or 'mulch' produced made me wonder whether the amount of energy used made it environmentally viable.

Having said that, most modern shredders are much quieter, but I remain unconvinced that they are worth the money you have to pay for them. Some rapid work with a good pair of secateurs or loppers can achieve results that will produce material you can just put in a pile and use as a mulch after a few months at much less expense.

I've had one for years, a powerful one and it is noisy. I have to go along with Birtiefox. The quietest method is to get a goat but then it would eat what you don't want to re-cycle lol. Or if possible burn it and make use of the ash.

I have a Mountfield "quiet shredder" and find it an amazing piece of kit. I put everything from tea bags to 4 inch branches through it and it produces a mush that breaks down into compost in only 3 or 4 weeks in the summer. Yes they will blog and clog up if you try to force to much through at one time but I found that by taking my time and keeping a steady supply of material going through then it just keeps on going.

4" blimy that's almost industrial, well done you Ian. I snapped off a blade on mine with only a 2" branch. I've welded it back on but though it works ok, it's slightly out of ballance.

Hi Heron, mine has a cylinder of blades as oppossed to the spinny-disk type and rotates quite slowly. If anything does jam it then it automatically reverses to clear itself. I wrote a review about it somewhere on site, but I'm not sure where! Lol