Why not cut them in half and put out of a bird feeder table for the birds to eat.

I put them on the compost heap, the birds like to root about in there as well (it's an open type).

I would compost them before using as mulch. That way if there are any pathogens on them then the composting will break most of them nasties down. The advice usually given is not to compost any apple with Scab on it as the spores can survive in the soil and re-infect next years fruit.
I reckon we have over 2 cwt of surplus apples. We put out as many as we can for the birds, but they also attract the badgers into the garden who then go on to do a massive amount of damage.

I agree would certainly not use as a mulch!

You can make apple sauce in a blender, dry apple slices for snacking etc, give some to friends etc..why throw them away when there are so many things that you can do with them. Of course if you have no other choice.....

We would need an awful lot of friends. Don't know how many apples Big g has, but we have already got over 400 kilos in store, two freezers full of purée and there are still almost as many apples in the trees as we have picked.