diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/BufferRecycler.java b/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/BufferRecycler.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8382b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/BufferRecycler.java
@@ -0,0 +1,176 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2011 the original author or authors.
+ * See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional
+ * information regarding copyright ownership.
+ *
+ * Licensed 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.xerial.snappy;
+import java.lang.ref.SoftReference;
+
+/**
+ * Simple helper class to encapsulate details of basic buffer
+ * recycling scheme, which helps a lot (as per profiling) for
+ * smaller encoding cases.
+ *
+ * @author tatu
+ */
+class BufferRecycler
+{
+    private final static int MIN_ENCODING_BUFFER = 4000;
+
+    private final static int MIN_OUTPUT_BUFFER = 8000;
+
+    /**
+     * This <code>ThreadLocal</code> contains a {@link java.lang.ref.SoftReference}
+     * to a {@link BufferRecycler} used to provide a low-cost
+     * buffer recycling for buffers we need for encoding, decoding.
+     */
+    final protected static ThreadLocal<SoftReference<BufferRecycler>> recyclerRef
+            = new ThreadLocal<SoftReference<BufferRecycler>>();
+
+
+    private byte[] inputBuffer;
+    private byte[] outputBuffer;
+
+    private byte[] decodingBuffer;
+    private byte[] encodingBuffer;
+
+    private short[] encodingHash;
+
+
+    /**
+     * Accessor to get thread-local recycler instance
+     */
+    public static BufferRecycler instance()
+    {
+        SoftReference<BufferRecycler> ref = recyclerRef.get();
+
+        BufferRecycler bufferRecycler;
+        if (ref == null) {
+            bufferRecycler = null;
+        }
+        else {
+            bufferRecycler = ref.get();
+        }
+
+        if (bufferRecycler == null) {
+            bufferRecycler = new BufferRecycler();
+            recyclerRef.set(new SoftReference<BufferRecycler>(bufferRecycler));
+        }
+        return bufferRecycler;
+    }
+
+    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+    // Buffers for encoding (output)
+    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+    public byte[] allocEncodingBuffer(int minSize)
+    {
+        byte[] buf = encodingBuffer;
+        if (buf == null || buf.length < minSize) {
+            buf = new byte[Math.max(minSize, MIN_ENCODING_BUFFER)];
+        }
+        else {
+            encodingBuffer = null;
+        }
+        return buf;
+    }
+
+    public void releaseEncodeBuffer(byte[] buffer)
+    {
+        if (encodingBuffer == null || buffer.length > encodingBuffer.length) {
+            encodingBuffer = buffer;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public byte[] allocOutputBuffer(int minSize)
+    {
+        byte[] buf = outputBuffer;
+        if (buf == null || buf.length < minSize) {
+            buf = new byte[Math.max(minSize, MIN_OUTPUT_BUFFER)];
+        }
+        else {
+            outputBuffer = null;
+        }
+        return buf;
+    }
+
+    public void releaseOutputBuffer(byte[] buffer)
+    {
+        if (outputBuffer == null || (buffer != null && buffer.length > outputBuffer.length)) {
+            outputBuffer = buffer;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public short[] allocEncodingHash(int suggestedSize)
+    {
+        short[] buf = encodingHash;
+        if (buf == null || buf.length < suggestedSize) {
+            buf = new short[suggestedSize];
+        }
+        else {
+            encodingHash = null;
+        }
+        return buf;
+    }
+
+    public void releaseEncodingHash(short[] buffer)
+    {
+        if (encodingHash == null || (buffer != null && buffer.length > encodingHash.length)) {
+            encodingHash = buffer;
+        }
+    }
+
+    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+    // Buffers for decoding (input)
+    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+
+    public byte[] allocInputBuffer(int minSize)
+    {
+        byte[] buf = inputBuffer;
+        if (buf == null || buf.length < minSize) {
+            buf = new byte[Math.max(minSize, MIN_OUTPUT_BUFFER)];
+        }
+        else {
+            inputBuffer = null;
+        }
+        return buf;
+    }
+
+    public void releaseInputBuffer(byte[] buffer)
+    {
+        if (inputBuffer == null || (buffer != null && buffer.length > inputBuffer.length)) {
+            inputBuffer = buffer;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public byte[] allocDecodeBuffer(int size)
+    {
+        byte[] buf = decodingBuffer;
+        if (buf == null || buf.length < size) {
+            buf = new byte[size];
+        }
+        else {
+            decodingBuffer = null;
+        }
+        return buf;
+    }
+
+    public void releaseDecodeBuffer(byte[] buffer)
+    {
+        if (decodingBuffer == null || (buffer != null && buffer.length > decodingBuffer.length)) {
+            decodingBuffer = buffer;
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyOutputStream.java b/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyOutputStream.java
index 9542658..3547c95 100755
--- a/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyOutputStream.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xerial/snappy/SnappyOutputStream.java
@@ -56,11 +56,13 @@ public class SnappyOutputStream extends OutputStream {
     static final int DEFAULT_BLOCK_SIZE = 32 * 1024; // Use 32kb for the default block size
 
     protected final OutputStream out;
+
+    private final BufferRecycler recycler;
     private final int blockSize;
+    protected final byte[] inputBuffer;
+    protected final byte[] outputBuffer;
     private int inputCursor = 0;
-    protected byte[] uncompressed;
     private int outputCursor = 0;
-    protected byte[] outputBuffer;
 
     public SnappyOutputStream(OutputStream out) {
         this(out, DEFAULT_BLOCK_SIZE);
@@ -73,9 +75,10 @@ public class SnappyOutputStream extends OutputStream {
      */
     public SnappyOutputStream(OutputStream out, int blockSize) {
         this.out = out;
+        this.recycler = BufferRecycler.instance();
         this.blockSize = Math.max(MIN_BLOCK_SIZE, blockSize);
-        uncompressed = new byte[this.blockSize];
-        outputBuffer = new byte[SnappyCodec.HEADER_SIZE + 4 + Snappy.maxCompressedLength(this.blockSize)];
+        inputBuffer = recycler.allocInputBuffer(this.blockSize);
+        outputBuffer = recycler.allocOutputBuffer(SnappyCodec.HEADER_SIZE + 4 + Snappy.maxCompressedLength(this.blockSize));
         outputCursor = SnappyCodec.currentHeader.writeHeader(outputBuffer, 0);
     }
 
@@ -214,7 +217,7 @@ public class SnappyOutputStream extends OutputStream {
 
         if(inputCursor + byteLength < MIN_BLOCK_SIZE) {
             // copy the input data to uncompressed buffer
-            Snappy.arrayCopy(array, byteOffset, byteLength, uncompressed, inputCursor);
+            Snappy.arrayCopy(array, byteOffset, byteLength, inputBuffer, inputCursor);
             inputCursor += byteLength;
             return;
         }
@@ -244,10 +247,10 @@ public class SnappyOutputStream extends OutputStream {
      */
     @Override
     public void write(int b) throws IOException {
-        if(inputCursor >= uncompressed.length) {
+        if(inputCursor >= inputBuffer.length) {
             compressInput();
         }
-        uncompressed[inputCursor++] = (byte) b;
+        inputBuffer[inputCursor++] = (byte) b;
     }
 
     /* (non-Javadoc)
@@ -291,7 +294,7 @@ public class SnappyOutputStream extends OutputStream {
         if(!hasSufficientOutputBufferFor(inputCursor)) {
             dumpOutput();
         }
-        int compressedSize = Snappy.compress(uncompressed, 0, inputCursor, outputBuffer, outputCursor + 4);
+        int compressedSize = Snappy.compress(inputBuffer, 0, inputCursor, outputBuffer, outputCursor + 4);
         // Write compressed data size
         writeInt(outputBuffer, outputCursor, compressedSize);
         outputCursor += 4 + compressedSize;
@@ -306,8 +309,14 @@ public class SnappyOutputStream extends OutputStream {
      */
     @Override
     public void close() throws IOException {
-        flush();
-        out.close();
+        try {
+            flush();
+            out.close();
+        }
+        finally {
+            recycler.releaseInputBuffer(inputBuffer);
+            recycler.releaseOutputBuffer(outputBuffer);
+        }
     }
 
 }
diff --git a/version.sbt b/version.sbt
index 50b13ff..f906b2e 100644
--- a/version.sbt
+++ b/version.sbt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-version in ThisBuild := "1.1.1.2"
+version in ThisBuild := "1.1.1.3-SNAPSHOT"