No idea how they dispose of it. I've asked my immediate management chain if I can take damaged/pitted instruments that need to be replaced to donate to the local colleges - Anatomy & Physiology classes all have a lab component to dissect something, and the school I went to had instruments that were absolute garbage.

The answer was no... We just put instruments that need to be replaced in a red bin with other sharps like needles, and the bins are shipped off somewhere, probably to be incinerated.

Bigger stuff like equipment, we send to the biomedical engineering department for outprocessing. From there, no idea. Probably land fill.

I wouldn't dumpster dive at a hospital though. It'll be a sea of ruptured catheter bags, linens saturated with poop, and just all manner of pathogens. And probably sharps - that stuff is supposed to go in sealed red bins, but all it takes is one lazy employee and you've got yourself an HIV+ needle stick.