What term describes discarding media with no other sanitization considerations?

The term that describes discarding media with no other sanitization considerations is disposal. This process involves getting rid of physical media, such as hard drives or tapes, without any intention or method of protecting any sensitive data it may contain. Disposal does not include any precautions to ensure that the data is unrecoverable or to meet any information security standards.

In contrast, destruction refers to methods that actively ensure data cannot be retrieved, such as shredding or degaussing. Composting and recycling imply some level of processing or repurposing of the material, which typically involves considerations of data security, thus aligning with different objectives than simply disposal. Therefore, disposal accurately captures the concept of discarding media without any focus on sanitization.