The objective of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the fragmentation of end-of-life goods during shredding. Investigations have been carried out on laboratory- and industrial-scale shredders in order to establish the relationship between specific energy consumption, fragment size and degree of liberation of the metal/metal and nonmetal/metal composites by analyzing the influence of operating parameters on shredded scrap quality. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.