Garbage collection processing is facilitated. Based on execution of a load instruction and determining that an object pointer to be loaded indicates a location within a selected portion of memory undergoing garbage collection, processing control is obtained by a handler executing within a processor of the computing environment. The handler obtains an address of the object pointer from a pre-defined location, reads the object pointer, and determines whether the object pointer is to be modified. If the object pointer is to be modified, the handler modifies the object pointer. The handler then stores the modified object pointer in a selected location.