Polyester fiber and memory foam, the two most common pillow fillings, are both made from fossil fuels. They clump, collect sweat and dust, and go flat within a year or two.
A growing number of sleepers are breaking that cycle with a leftover from buckwheat farming.
A buckwheat pillow is filled with the hard outer shells of buckwheat seeds, the part nobody eats.
Buckwheat is grown for its seeds, which are turned into flour, groats and noodles. Before the seed can be eaten, its tough, triangular shell has to be removed. Those shells, called hulls, are a byproduct of the milling process. Some are used for animal bedding or burned for fuel, but many have little value.
Pillows filled with buckwheat hulls have been used in Japan for generations, where they are known as sobakawa pillows. Their growing popularity in Europe and North America has more to do with materials: many shoppers now want a pillow that isn’t made from plastic.