Abstract: A threshold size of “interesting” free space regions (those areas that exceed a minimum size and are therefore worth recovering) is employed during garbage collection when detecting and reclaiming non-allocated memory space. For mark/sweep garbage collection, the threshold is based upon a number of consecutive zero mark bits in a mark bit array. The mark bit array, in which the liveness of each allocated data object is indicated by a logical “1” at the first memory segment of a live object and a logical “0” at the first memory segment for dead object, with the remaining memory segments being marked with a logical “0”, is produced by the mark phase of a mark/sweep garbage collector. During the sweep phase, however, the mark bit array is processed instead of each object in memory.