Computer systems and methods for scheduling garbage collection in a distributed environment that includes multiple partitions that reference various data blocks that store data objects. A global occupancy aggregator may access occupancy information for each of the partitions from an occupancy index of each of the partitions. This occupancy information specifies a portion of storage resources occupied by those data blocks referenced by each of the partitions. The global occupancy aggregator may aggregate the accessed occupancy information to generate a global occupancy index that combines the occupancy information of the partitions. The global occupancy aggregator may generate a global schedule for garbage collection for the partitions based on the global occupancy index. The global schedule specifies which of the data blocks included in the global occupancy index are to be subjected to garbage collection.