Disposal Order
Also known as: FBA Disposal, Disposal Request
A disposal order instructs Amazon to discard or recycle FBA inventory you no longer want stored, charged a per-unit disposal fee instead of returning the units to you.
A disposal order (also called a removal-disposal) tells Amazon to destroy or recycle units in a fulfillment center rather than ship them back to you. Sellers use it for unsellable, expired, damaged, or slow-moving stock when paying for a return shipment and re-handling is not worth it.
Disposal carries a per-unit fee based on size and weight, similar to (and usually cheaper than) the fee for a removal order that ships units back. Amazon also auto-disposes or auto-removes inventory that exceeds storage limits or sits too long if you have enabled automated settings, so monitor those defaults.
Disposal is the harshest of three exit paths for stale FBA stock — the others being a removal order (ship back for liquidation or rework) and liquidation (Amazon resells through bulk channels for partial recovery). Disposing kills the unit entirely, so weigh it against the aged-inventory surcharge you would otherwise keep paying.
A seller has 300 expired units accruing the aged-inventory surcharge. Rather than pay to ship them back, they place a disposal order at roughly $0.97/unit, ending the storage charges.