diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c564fe21d72..44d2ed3959b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Add support to tempo workloads to `overrides` from single configmap in microservice mode. [#896](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/896) (@kavirajk)
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Make `overrides_config` block name consistent with Loki and Cortex in microservice mode. [#906](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/906) (@kavirajk)
 * [ENHANCEMENT] Make `overrides_config` mount name static `tempo-overrides` in the tempo workloads in microservice mode. [#906](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/914) (@kavirajk)
-
+* [ENHANCEMENT] Reduce compactor memory usage by forcing garbage collection. [#915](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/915) (@joe-elliott)
 
 ## v1.1.0-rc.0 / 2021-08-11
 
diff --git a/tempodb/compactor.go b/tempodb/compactor.go
index 7ee95b3db72..ca9cc35729c 100644
--- a/tempodb/compactor.go
+++ b/tempodb/compactor.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"runtime"
 	"sort"
 	"strconv"
 	"time"
@@ -211,6 +212,7 @@ func (rw *readerWriter) compact(blockMetas []*backend.BlockMeta, tenantID string
 
 		// write partial block
 		if currentBlock.CurrentBufferLength() >= int(rw.compactorCfg.FlushSizeBytes) {
+			runtime.GC()
 			tracker, err = appendBlock(rw, tracker, currentBlock)
 			if err != nil {
 				return errors.Wrap(err, "error writing partial block")