Leaking memory is one way to get a value living for `'static`, but it's not the only way

Playful Programming

A common misconception about Rust's `'static` lifetime is that it implies memory leaks. In reality, `'static` means a value is valid for the rest of the program, not that it must live in the binary or be leaked. It applies to reference lifetimes (like string literals stored in the binary), trait bounds (like closures passed to `std::thread::spawn`), and owned values (which have no non-static references). While leaking memory is one way to obtain a `'static` value, owned data is inherently `'static` and can still be dropped normally. `T: 'static` means the type is safe to hold until program end, but you're not required to hold it that long.

Rust's `'static` doesn't imply memory leaks