Weak References and finalizers constitute an elegant alternative to obtain control over the interaction between the application and the garbage collector. However, in some contexts, finalizers are not necessary because it`s possible to extend the weak reference mechanism in order to give support to finalization. In this work, we present a survey of the most common uses of these mechanisms. We also show how weak references can replace finalizers proposing a weak reference based implementation for each finalizer use. Based on this survey, we developed a finalization mechanism based on weak references for the Lua programming language. Motivated by our proposal of a better exploration of the weak reference mechanism, we developed a solution for an important problem related to cycles on weak tables, an structure created using weak references. Cyclic references between keys and values prevents the elements inside the cycle from being collected, even if they are no more reachable. This ends up bringing difficulties to the use of weak tables in certain kinds of applications. The Haskell programming language solved this problem implementing an adaptation of a mechanism called ephemerons. Based on this fact, we modified the Lua garbage collector in order to offer support to ephemerons. As a result, we were able to solve the problem of cycles on weak tables in Lua.