Fluffy stuff (from inside a couch)

A while back, I curbed-picked two couch cushions -- the big kind, not that you sit on, but that you lean against at the back of the couch.  I thought maybe they'd be a better color or more comfy than our current cushions.

The verdict: Really, these turned out to be about the same in terms of comfort as our current cushions, and the color wasn't that much of an improvement. Now, years later, it's time to release these back into the world.

I could just put them back at the curb for the trash haulers; after all, that's where I found them first.  But that is a LOT of stuff to head to a landfill or get burnt into poisonous gasses and ashes.  So I'm trying to find another way to put them to use.

The first step, of course, was disassembling them. I zipped off the outer blue covers; the blue upholstery fabric will make great fancy bags. That's the easy part.  The insides, to my surprise, weren't solid foam blocks, but white fluffy stuff: fiberfill!

Underneath the blue upholstery fabric
were white cotton (?) liners containing fluffy fiberfill.

Fiberfill (sometimes called polyfill) is the stuff that crafters use to fill teddy bears and other stuffed animals.  I went through a decade of making just such little animals for family and friends.  Nowadays, a one-pound bag of this sells for about $8 or $9.  And here, I have a bonanza on my hands!

But what to do with this myself? I'm no longer in the animal-making mode, and I don't really want to start up a new hobby just because I happen to have a glut of something I don't want anyway.  Instead, here's what I've tried so far:

• I called our local recycling center.  I assured them I know that they don't take it, but do they know anyone who does?  The woman who answered the phone commiserated with me; she hates to see how much stuff goes to waste, but says that she doesn't know of takers.  Instead, the only option she knew of is to be resigned to seeing it go in to the waste stream, where it would get burned. 
• I listed the fiberfill on Freecycle.  No takers.  Sigh.
• We had a bunch of pillows that have gotten packed down over the years.  I haven't replaced them because -- well, the usual, because I hate buying new stuff that will eventually go into the garbage.  In this instance, though, I took advantage of the fluffy bonanza.  I cut open the ends of the flat pillows, trashed the flat-mashed innards, repacked the pillows with fluffy fiber fill, and sewed the ends up.  Four "new" fluffy pillows, for free!  

I'm still working on responsibly rehoming the rest. It's hard!  I might someday have to give up and trash these bags; I'll update this post when their fate is determined.