According to an example, persistent memory garbage collection may include determining whether termination of a program is based on a specified termination of the program during execution of the program or an unspecified termination of the program during the execution of the program. In response to a determination that the termination of the program is based on the specified termination of the program during the execution of the program, persistent metadata stored in a persistent memory may be used to restart the program. In response to a determination that the termination of the program is based on the unspecified termination of the program during the execution of the program, the persistent metadata stored in the persistent memory may be used to collect garbage from the persistent memory and to restart the program.