Direct retrieval of space junk, i.e. return of spacecraft to Earth via the Space Shuttle or Soyuz capsule, demands extra missions. Of course not. Besides this, decreasing the number of operational satellites is out of the question for corporate players, and for governmental ones as well. In its Orbital Debris Quarterly News, NASA states that although these commercial networks will not represent any fundamentally new issues, failure to follow responsible procedures could exacerbate the orbital debris environment. Yet any corporate interest in responsibility is unlikely, especially if it has to be expressed in projects as costly and old-fashioned as garbage collection.
Orbital debris is an alien phenomenon.
I've seen a picture of two Ghanese men and a child bending over the weather-beaten spaceship in the middle of the night. Explosions, collisions, and the satellite failures they cause generally go unnoticed. And if we did notice, they'd still be none of our business. Thus Earth's inhabitants have virtually nothing to do with the environment of that planet. But what they don't provide is the corresponding public interest.