There is a serious problem though; old parts in higher orbits take longer to come down, and cause a problem for other (still functioning) satellites.
And then there's the problem of collisions: when 2 pieces of garbage collide, thousands of new pieces are created, each with a different trajectory and thus hard to track. These can become so called micro-meteorites, just like the natural ones, and are a great danger towards astronauts performing EVAs and other spacecraft.
You can find short clips on the internet, showing what a simple bolt flying at 20 000km/u does to a steel plate of a couple of centimeters thick...
There are 2 associations that track the largest pieces that are orbiting earth IIRC, one is from the USA (DoD I think), the other... well, I forgot where it's from.
Someone should really go out and give space a good cleaning
Would make things a lot easier!
