The Recycler operates by dividing time into epochs, which are very loosely synchronized. Thus there is no barrier synchronization to induce long pause times. Instead, all processors take part in an epoch, and when all have taken part, then the garbage collection for that epoch can begin.

The Recycler operates by applying reference count decrement operations one epoch behind the increment operations. This allows the "ragged barrier" for epochs while guaranteeing that no live objects are deleted.