diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 24d97a8f28d50ac577e7120bf92567eb4803ae92..216169654136b8fb9742433f7d86e60d911c6a6d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ data-push-gateway/apns_keyfile_staging.p8
 apns-test/apns_keyfile_staging.p8
 .idea/
 data-push-gateway/fcm_keyfile.json
+terraform*.log
diff --git a/terraform/environments/scripts/destroy-env.sh b/terraform/environments/scripts/destroy-env.sh
index 8feb7be2d8fb66fdc05c7485e05a4091b8f97396..d8137694745e9a6bcded13142bf6a5e666b55e6c 100755
--- a/terraform/environments/scripts/destroy-env.sh
+++ b/terraform/environments/scripts/destroy-env.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env sh
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 # exit when any command fails
 set -ex
@@ -6,11 +6,36 @@ set -ex
 # enable debug output in terraform
 export TF_LOG=DEBUG
 
-cd terraform/environments
+# retry logic for destroy: sometimes, a full workspace destroy does not work. This can be due to e.g.:
+# * implicit dependencies between terraform resources not declared with depends_on,
+# * unclean shutdown of resources, e.g. service does not close db connections, db still sees clients connected,
+# * GCP stuff not allowing our resources to be deleted.
+# Most of the time, retrying a destroy fixes these causes.
+retry() {
+  for i in {1..3}; do
+    set +e
+    "$@"
+    retval=$?
+    set -e
+    if [ "$retval" -ne "0" ]; then
+      if [ "$i" -lt "3" ]; then
+        echo "command '$*' failed in try $i, retrying after 60 seconds"
+        sleep 60 # let things settle a bit
+      else
+        echo "command '$*' failed in try $i, giving up"
+        exit $retval
+      fi
+    else
+      break # success
+    fi
+  done
+}
+
+cd "$(dirname "$0")"/..
 
 TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-init.log       terraform init
 TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-version.log    terraform version
-TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-workspace.log  terraform workspace new "$1" || terraform workspace select "$1"
-TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-destroy.log    terraform destroy -auto-approve -var="image_tag=dummy"
+TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-workspace.log  terraform workspace select -or-create=true "$1"
+TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-destroy.log    retry terraform destroy -auto-approve -var="image_tag=dummy"
 TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-ws-default.log terraform workspace select default
 TF_LOG_PATH=terraform-ws-delete.log  terraform workspace delete "$1"