A garburator is an in-sink waste disposer, mounted under a kitchen sink between the drain and the U-bend . The device first became widely popular in upscale kitchens of the 1970s and 1980s. Concerns over environmental impact weakened its popularity, but kitchen designers and plumbers confirm the renewed appeal of the food-waste-grinding and -liquefying creature that lives under the sink. In-Sink-Erator is the world's largest manufacturer of garburators.

There are two varieties of garburator. The most common is the continuous-feed version; once the unit is turned on -- usually by a switch on the wall resembling a light switch -- it continues to run and grind food until switched off. Less common is the batch-feed variety, which will not run until its lid has been put in place and locked; this prevents accidents whereby a child or inattentive adult tries to fish something out of the drain and the unit is accidentally switched on.

In the U.S. this appliance is called a garbage disposal unit, often shortened to just "garbage disposal". It is listed in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary as a "Canadian" word.