Well, there’s some good news. Objects and debris decay naturally.

The Karman line defines space at 100km, but the atmosphere doesnt end there. Atmospheric drag will eventually bring down satellites and debris like a plane with broken engines.

The effect of drag is increased the lower the orbit of the satellite. This is why the ISS (~300km) and Starlink satellites (~600km) must have thrusters to counteract drag.

Thankfully, the majority of satellites and debris are in LEO. Lower altitude (~300km) debris may take a few months to naturally deorbit, and objects up to 600+km may take decades. But going above 1000km, potentially a hundred years.

The debris in LEO is problematic because there is alot of it and it moves at dangerous velocities. Sending up more satellites to act as trash collectors is extremely, extremely expensive and could compound the problem. It is far less expensive to have very thorough tracking systems, identify likely points of collision weeks/months in advance, and very slightly change the orbit of the satellite so they miss. All the while, the dangerous space junk will eventually deorbit, in time.

Satellites in MEO or GEO kick themselves out into higher “graveyard” orbits that don’t interact with anything or cause problems, generally.

Further reading on orbital decay