diff --git a/pkg/parquetquery/iters.go b/pkg/parquetquery/iters.go
index 7d8aea60bc4..ee747018258 100644
--- a/pkg/parquetquery/iters.go
+++ b/pkg/parquetquery/iters.go
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ import (
 	"math"
 	"sync"
 	"sync/atomic"
+	"unique"
 
-	"github.com/grafana/tempo/pkg/parquetquery/intern"
 	"github.com/grafana/tempo/pkg/util"
 	pq "github.com/parquet-go/parquet-go"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel"
@@ -781,7 +781,6 @@ type SyncIteratorOpt func(*SyncIterator)
 func SyncIteratorOptIntern() SyncIteratorOpt {
 	return func(i *SyncIterator) {
 		i.intern = true
-		i.interner = intern.New()
 	}
 }
 
@@ -814,8 +813,7 @@ type SyncIterator struct {
 	currPageN       int
 	at              IteratorResult // Current value pointed at by iterator. Returned by call Next and SeekTo, valid until next call.
 
-	intern   bool
-	interner *intern.Interner
+	intern bool
 }
 
 var _ Iterator = (*SyncIterator)(nil)
@@ -1248,7 +1246,7 @@ func (c *SyncIterator) makeResult(t RowNumber, v *pq.Value) *IteratorResult {
 	// always have length 0 or 1.
 	if len(c.at.Entries) == 1 {
 		if c.intern {
-			c.at.Entries[0].Value = c.interner.UnsafeClone(v)
+			c.at.Entries[0].Value = *unique.Make(v).Value()
 		} else {
 			c.at.Entries[0].Value = v.Clone()
 		}
@@ -1259,12 +1257,7 @@ func (c *SyncIterator) makeResult(t RowNumber, v *pq.Value) *IteratorResult {
 
 func (c *SyncIterator) Close() {
 	c.closeCurrRowGroup()
-
 	c.span.End()
-
-	if c.intern && c.interner != nil {
-		c.interner.Close()
-	}
 }
 
 // ColumnIterator asynchronously iterates through the given row groups and column. Applies