# Effective Kotlin Item 53: Eliminate obsolete object references

DevFeed: [Effective Kotlin Item 53: Eliminate obsolete object references](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/effective-kotlin-item-53-eliminate-obsolete-object-references-39287.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://kt.academy/article/ek-object-references>)

Published: 2021-09-13T00:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Kt. Academy](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/kt-academy.md>)

Topics: [Memory Leaks](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/memory-leaks.md>), [Kotlin](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kotlin.md>), [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [classes](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/classes.md>), [function](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/function.md>)

Tags: [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [gc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gc.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [kotlin](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kotlin.md>), [memory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/memory.md>), [memory-leaks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/memory-leaks.md>), [workshop-learning-programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/workshop-learning-programming.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how obsolete object references can cause memory leaks in Java and Android applications. It discusses retaining large or no-longer-needed objects, including activities stored in companion objects or top-level properties, and shows how stale references in a stack implementation keep removed elements reachable by the Garbage Collector.

## Source excerpt

How to help our garbage collector and avoid memory leaks.