To provide a shredder which can be used for shredding soft materials such as cloth as well as document papers and also is excellent in safety and prevents foreign matter from getting in and has fine external appearance.

In a shredder, a shredder body 12 having a throw-in port 14 for throwing in material to be shredded such as documents or soft cloth is provided with a pair of shredding rollers 18 each having a cutter 18b for cutting the material to be shredded thrown in and a roller driving mechanism 19 for rotating the rollers 18. A shredded material housing path P leading between the pair of the shredding rollers 18 from the throw-in port 14 is formed. The path P and the throw-in port 14 are formed so wide as to be suited for throwing in soft cloth or the like. An opening/closing plate 24 having a long, narrow waste paper throw-in hole 25 for opening and closing the throw-in port 14 is movably provided on the body 12. A detector 26 for detecting the opening/ closing of the throw-in port 14 by the opening/closing plate 24 to operate the driving mechanism 19 when the opening/closing plate 24 is closed is provided on the body 12.