diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/AbstractObjectPool.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/AbstractObjectPool.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef75688
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/AbstractObjectPool.java
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.asterix.external.parser.jackson;
+
+import java.util.ArrayDeque;
+import java.util.Queue;
+
+import org.apache.asterix.om.util.container.IObjectFactory;
+
+/**
+ * Object pool for DFS traversal mode, which allows to recycle objects
+ * as soon as it is not needed.
+ */
+public abstract class AbstractObjectPool<E, T, Q> implements IObjectPool<E> {
+    private final IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory;
+    private final Queue<Q> recycledObjects;
+    private final T param;
+
+    protected AbstractObjectPool(IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory, T param) {
+        this.objectFactory = objectFactory;
+        recycledObjects = new ArrayDeque<>();
+        this.param = param;
+    }
+
+    public E getInstance() {
+        E instance = unwrap(recycledObjects.poll());
+        if (objectFactory != null && instance == null) {
+            instance = objectFactory.create(param);
+        }
+        return instance;
+    }
+
+    public void recycle(E object) {
+        if (object != null) {
+            recycledObjects.add(wrap(object));
+        }
+    }
+
+    protected abstract E unwrap(Q element);
+
+    protected abstract Q wrap(E element);
+
+    @Override
+    public String toString() {
+        return recycledObjects.toString();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/IObjectPool.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/IObjectPool.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2990ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/IObjectPool.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.asterix.external.parser.jackson;
+
+/**
+ * Object pool for DFS traversal mode, which allows to recycle objects
+ * as soon as it is not needed.
+ */
+public interface IObjectPool<E> {
+    E getInstance();
+
+    void recycle(E object);
+}
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ObjectPool.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ObjectPool.java
index 8945e71..864d9a9 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ObjectPool.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ObjectPool.java
@@ -18,20 +18,13 @@
  */
 package org.apache.asterix.external.parser.jackson;
 
-import java.util.ArrayDeque;
-import java.util.Queue;
-
 import org.apache.asterix.om.util.container.IObjectFactory;
 
 /**
  * Object pool for DFS traversal mode, which allows to recycle objects
  * as soon as it is not needed.
  */
-public class ObjectPool<E, T> {
-    private final IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory;
-    private final Queue<E> recycledObjects;
-    private final T element;
-
+public class ObjectPool<E, T> extends AbstractObjectPool<E, T, E> {
     public ObjectPool() {
         this(null, null);
     }
@@ -40,28 +33,17 @@
         this(objectFactory, null);
     }
 
-    public ObjectPool(IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory, T element) {
-        this.objectFactory = objectFactory;
-        recycledObjects = new ArrayDeque<>();
-        this.element = element;
-    }
-
-    public E getInstance() {
-        E instance = recycledObjects.poll();
-        if (objectFactory != null && instance == null) {
-            instance = objectFactory.create(element);
-        }
-        return instance;
-    }
-
-    public void recycle(E object) {
-        if (object != null) {
-            recycledObjects.add(object);
-        }
+    public ObjectPool(IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory, T param) {
+        super(objectFactory, param);
     }
 
     @Override
-    public String toString() {
-        return recycledObjects.toString();
+    protected E unwrap(E wrapped) {
+        return wrapped;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected E wrap(E element) {
+        return element;
     }
 }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ParserContext.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ParserContext.java
index d0b79b1..ef9ff08 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ParserContext.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/ParserContext.java
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
 public class ParserContext {
     private static final int SERIALIZED_FIELDNAME_MAP_MAX_SIZE = 128;
 
-    private final ObjectPool<IARecordBuilder, ATypeTag> objectBuilderPool;
+    private final IObjectPool<IARecordBuilder> objectBuilderPool;
     private final ObjectPool<IAsterixListBuilder, ATypeTag> arrayBuilderPool;
 
     /**
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@
      * <p>
      * Scalar value 5 is written 4 times in tempBuffer("d") then tempBuffer("c") ... tempBuffer("a")
      */
-    private final ObjectPool<IMutableValueStorage, ATypeTag> tempBufferPool;
+    private final IObjectPool<IMutableValueStorage> tempBufferPool;
     private final ObjectPool<BitSet, Void> nullBitmapPool;
     private final Map<String, IMutableValueStorage> serializedFieldNames;
     private final ISerializerDeserializer<AString> stringSerDe;
@@ -76,9 +76,9 @@
 
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
     public ParserContext(boolean allocateModfiedUTF8Writer) {
-        objectBuilderPool = new ObjectPool<>(new RecordBuilderFactory());
+        objectBuilderPool = new SoftObjectPool<>(new RecordBuilderFactory());
         arrayBuilderPool = new ObjectPool<>(new ListBuilderFactory(), ATypeTag.ARRAY);
-        tempBufferPool = new ObjectPool<>(new AbvsBuilderFactory());
+        tempBufferPool = new SoftObjectPool<>(new AbvsBuilderFactory());
         nullBitmapPool = new ObjectPool<>();
         serializedFieldNames = new LRUMap<>(SERIALIZED_FIELDNAME_MAP_MAX_SIZE);
         stringSerDe = SerializerDeserializerProvider.INSTANCE.getAStringSerializerDeserializer();
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/SoftObjectPool.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/SoftObjectPool.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91655db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/parser/jackson/SoftObjectPool.java
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.asterix.external.parser.jackson;
+
+import java.lang.ref.SoftReference;
+
+import org.apache.asterix.om.util.container.IObjectFactory;
+
+/**
+ * Object pool for DFS traversal mode, which allows to recycle objects
+ * as soon as it is not needed.
+ */
+public class SoftObjectPool<E, T> extends AbstractObjectPool<E, T, SoftReference<E>> {
+    public SoftObjectPool() {
+        this(null, null);
+    }
+
+    public SoftObjectPool(IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory) {
+        this(objectFactory, null);
+    }
+
+    public SoftObjectPool(IObjectFactory<E, T> objectFactory, T element) {
+        super(objectFactory, element);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected E unwrap(SoftReference<E> wrapped) {
+        return wrapped == null ? null : wrapped.get();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected SoftReference<E> wrap(E element) {
+        return new SoftReference<>(element);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringUtil.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringUtil.java
index f96ed72..38de4ac 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringUtil.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringUtil.java
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/**
+/*
  * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
  * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
  * distributed with this work for additional information
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.io.UTFDataFormatException;
+import java.lang.ref.SoftReference;
 
 import org.apache.hyracks.util.encoding.VarLenIntEncoderDecoder;
 
@@ -690,10 +691,12 @@
         if (writer == null) {
             tempBytes = new byte[utflen + 5];
         } else {
-            if (writer.tempBytes == null || writer.tempBytes.length < utflen + 5) {
-                writer.tempBytes = new byte[utflen + 5];
+            byte[] writerTempBytes = writer.tempBytesRef != null ? writer.tempBytesRef.get() : null;
+            if (writerTempBytes == null || writerTempBytes.length < utflen + 5) {
+                writerTempBytes = new byte[utflen + 5];
+                writer.tempBytesRef = new SoftReference<>(writerTempBytes);
             }
-            tempBytes = writer.tempBytes;
+            tempBytes = writerTempBytes;
         }
         return tempBytes;
     }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringWriter.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringWriter.java
index 563f865..a0cc7d0 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringWriter.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-util/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/util/string/UTF8StringWriter.java
@@ -21,11 +21,12 @@
 import java.io.DataOutput;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Serializable;
+import java.lang.ref.SoftReference;
 
 public class UTF8StringWriter implements Serializable {
 
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
-    transient byte[] tempBytes;
+    transient SoftReference<byte[]> tempBytesRef;
 
     public final void writeUTF8(CharSequence str, DataOutput out) throws IOException {
         UTF8StringUtil.writeUTF8(str, out, this);