Whatever the fuck "autoclaved" means I have no idea, but it goes to the landfill....You can buy a sharps container from the drugstore for home use and you just seal it and throw it in the trash....I mean any sealed container sturdy enough sides that a needle won't poke through is pretty much the same thing, except it's not red and doesn't say "Biohazard"....The last person to handle it will be either the garbage man that throws it in the truck, who won't get poked because he won't be uncapping sealed containers of needles most likely, or if you throw them in the dumpster, they'll go straight from a truck to the landfill....There is really nothing "magical" about it....Just throwing away needles in the trash is fucked up, I agree..
You should see some of the OTHER shit people throw away, I've seen trash can filled with hooves and guts and body parts from hunters, all manner of nasty organic matter....
but anyway, this isn't the sharps disposal thread, so
Edit: Okay, so I knew hospitals probably used different methods, and apparently the waste disposal companies they use incinerate most medical waste, sterilize and return the sharps containers to whatever facility they came from....I suppose maybe you could bring your sharps containers to the hospital...although I still don't think all of it ends up incinerated...