1. A method for use with a distributed storage system comprising a plurality of storage devices, the method comprising: initializing a garbage collection (GC) front value as the maximum sequence number associated with a storage chunk within a set of consecutively sealed storage chunks, the storage chunks corresponding to storage capacity allocated within the storage devices and having associated sequence numbers; using the GC front value to determine GC scope, the GC scope including zero or more of the storage chunks; retrieving metadata information about the GC scope storage chunks; identifying unreferenced storage chunks from the GC scope storage chunks using the metadata information; and reclaiming storage capacity corresponding to the unreferenced storage chunks.