Hospitals have special hospital trash, where they throw diapers, used medicine boxes, etc etc etc. But what about limbs? do they go into the trash as well? Does it get incinerated? Wouldn’t that somehow spread possibly harmful substances?
I have no idea, but there are standard protocols for all biohazards. Incineration would prevent harmful substances from being released, not spread them.
Here in Ontario, incineration, preferably on-site. Either using the hospital’s incinerator, or just overcooking the dinners for the patients. Here is the cookbook.
A friend of mine lost a leg in an accident. He really, really wanted to keep his amputated leg, but they wouldn’t let him.
There was a Civil War officer who did, in fact, keep his amputated arm. Fewer regulations in those days.
One time we were at the hospital waiting for an accident witness to get treated so I could talk to her. I was wondering around and ended up down by the incinerator where a guy in full contamination suit was literally shoveling body parts in. They were all loosely wrapped in what looked like brown butchers paper. But I saw some hands, arms, and feet sticking out on some. There had to be about a dozen or so. So I’m thinking maybe they keep them and do several at once? I can’t imagine that many amputations in one day.
Anyway, it was kind of freaky to watch.
AFAIK they’re either incinerated as medical waste, or if the patient requests sent to a funeral home.
I used to work for the local health authority as a transport manager. We had six different sites and only one incinerator. Orthopedics was several miles away from there.
When they amputated any body part, it would be well, very well, wrapped up in plastic wrap and clearly marked as a bio hazard. I had to send transport to take it to be incinerated.
Mostly we did it with our own transport, but we also had a contract with a local taxi firm for anything we couldn’t do ourselves. It sometimes happened, usually at weekends or holidays, that the taxi firm would do the transport for us. Most of their drivers wouldn’t do it for some reason, so the owner himself had to do it.
I was just going to say this myself. Some people want amputated or otherwise removed body parts cremated so it can be buried with them when the time comes, for any number of reasons.
Is it true that some hospitals will accommodate this wish for parents who want the placenta?
Orthodox Jews believe that amputated limbs need to be buried. I imagine that if requested for religious reasons, a hospital will turn the limb over to the person it used to be attached to for religiously-proper disposal.
Cremation makes sense, either in bulk for those who don’t care or specially for those that do (e.g., Orthodox Jews). I have to admit–if I lost a limb, I’d rather want it preserved in a large glass jar. My next-of-kin could sell it for megabux to Obscura when I died, no doubt. 
I would assume, before disposal, the tissue would be sent to pathology.
They should turn them into taxidermic specimens, and then connect them to the back of a giant throne so that they’re all pointing outward. It wouldn’t be creepy in the slightest…
I would love to use my amputated leg to freak people out if I had an amputated leg…
It’s payment these days. Healthcare costs an arm and a leg! 
My grandfather’s leg was buried. This was probably sometime in the 20’s. We aren’t Jewish. From what I understand they used to bury amputated limbs quite often in the past.
Maybe somebody’s stockpiling Arms
You assume correctly, unfortunately (limbs (typically gangrenous legs) are not my favorite anatomic specimen).
We’ve never had to my recollection any patient wanting to take an amputated leg home for burial or other purpose. Placentas, rarely yes. Sometimes gallbladders (or just the stones). Once during residency training a woman requested and got her uterus for presumed backyard burial.
The Civil War general alluded to is probably Dan Sickles*, who lost a leg at Gettysburg and donated it to the Army Medical Museum (where, I understand, it can still be seen today. Make a special trip and bring the kiddies!). Sickles used to go visit his leg at the museum.
*Sickles was a notorious figure who got away with killing his wife’s lover (temporary insanity defense) in 1859, then botched things on a major scale leading troops in the Civil War but still wound up winning the Medal of Honor.
It’s usualy incineration, which is how most medical waste is disposed.
Not a limb, but when when I had my recent surgery for a herniated disc, I asked the surgeon just before going in if I could have what he removed as a souvenir. I was mostly joking but was a little curious to see the stuff that was causing me so much trouble.
After surgery he came in and gave me a pill-bottle sized container of the stuff, preserved in some liquid. He said he had to really beg the folks in the lab (pathology??) for it and that they were really uneasy about putting it in the hands of the patient.
I was surprised that he had gone to so much trouble and I jokingly replied that it would make a good show and tell for our Cub Scout den. He reacted with great concern and said no, that would not be a good idea to pass it around to children.
Apparently, my surgeon does not get my jokes.
This guy might have gotten to take his foot home:
It’s very possible it’s a fake…you never get a very close-up view.
(Warning: Not for the squeamish! You are seeing either a real amputated foot, or a pretty darn good replica of one.)
Edit: This news story seems to lean in the direction of confirming it’s real, but still no solid proof.