1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: determining, for a computing device having a memory, whether to initiate a full garbage collection operation or an ephemeral garbage collection operation, including: determining a total resource usage metric and a managed object metric, wherein the managed object metric is based on one or more objects managed by a runtime application; determining whether a total-to-managed (T/M) ratio of the total resource usage metric to the managed object metric is greater than a T/M threshold; when the T/M ratio is greater than the T/M threshold, initiating the full garbage collection operation; when the T/M ratio is not greater than the T/M threshold, determining whether the total resource usage metric is greater than a maximum total resource usage; and when the total resource usage metric is greater than the maximum total resource usage, initiating the full garbage collection operation; determining an active finalizer ratio, the active finalizer ratio based on a calculation of a number of generation one objects on a finalizer list after a previous full garbage collection operation divided by a number of generation one objects on the finalizer list before the previous full garbage collection, the active finalizer ratio indicative of whether to adjust the T/M threshold; and if the full garbage collection operation has not been initiated, initiating the ephemeral garbage collection operation.