diff --git a/rust/upb.rs b/rust/upb.rs
index 34d57bfd3caa..15196b828aa5 100644
--- a/rust/upb.rs
+++ b/rust/upb.rs
@@ -19,14 +19,16 @@ use std::cell::UnsafeCell;
 use std::ffi::c_int;
 use std::fmt;
 use std::marker::PhantomData;
-use std::mem::{size_of, ManuallyDrop, MaybeUninit};
+use std::mem::{align_of, size_of, ManuallyDrop, MaybeUninit};
 use std::ops::Deref;
 use std::ptr::{self, NonNull};
 use std::slice;
-use std::sync::{Once, OnceLock};
+use std::sync::OnceLock;
 
 /// See `upb/port/def.inc`.
 const UPB_MALLOC_ALIGN: usize = 8;
+const _CHECK_UPB_MALLOC_ALIGN_AT_LEAST_POINTER_ALIGNED: () =
+    assert!(UPB_MALLOC_ALIGN >= align_of::<*const ()>());
 
 /// A wrapper over a `upb_Arena`.
 ///
@@ -148,37 +150,23 @@ impl Drop for Arena {
     }
 }
 
-static mut INTERNAL_PTR: Option<RawMessage> = None;
-static INIT: Once = Once::new();
-
-// The scratch size of 64 KiB matches the maximum supported size that a
-// upb_Message can possibly be.
-// TODO: Allow dynamic sized ScratchSpace.
+/// The scratch size of 64 KiB matches the maximum supported size that a
+/// upb_Message can possibly be.
 const UPB_SCRATCH_SPACE_BYTES: usize = 65_536;
-const ALIGN: usize = 32;
 
 /// Holds a zero-initialized block of memory for use by upb.
+///
 /// By default, if a message is not set in cpp, a default message is created.
 /// upb departs from this and returns a null ptr. However, since contiguous
 /// chunks of memory filled with zeroes are legit messages from upb's point of
 /// view, we can allocate a large block and refer to that when dealing
 /// with readonly access.
-pub struct ScratchSpace;
+#[repr(C, align(8))] // align to UPB_MALLOC_ALIGN = 8
+pub struct ScratchSpace([u8; UPB_SCRATCH_SPACE_BYTES]);
 impl ScratchSpace {
     pub fn zeroed_block(_private: Private) -> RawMessage {
-        unsafe {
-            INIT.call_once(|| {
-                let layout =
-                    std::alloc::Layout::from_size_align(UPB_SCRATCH_SPACE_BYTES, ALIGN).unwrap();
-                let Some(ptr) =
-                    crate::__internal::RawMessage::new(std::alloc::alloc_zeroed(layout).cast())
-                else {
-                    std::alloc::handle_alloc_error(layout)
-                };
-                INTERNAL_PTR = Some(ptr)
-            });
-            INTERNAL_PTR.unwrap()
-        }
+        static ZEROED_BLOCK: ScratchSpace = ScratchSpace([0; UPB_SCRATCH_SPACE_BYTES]);
+        NonNull::from(&ZEROED_BLOCK).cast()
     }
 }