Big harpoon is 'solution to space junk'

[NNadir]

12. A more interesting approach, a little bit near the edge of science fiction, is ion propulsion...

...engines working like truck cabs to ferry spacecraft out of orbit into interplanetary trajectories.

The exhaust of these engines, highly accelerated ions would have the property of either vaporizing small particles or pushing them out of orbit.

One would need to be careful to not put a spacecraft or satellite in the path of this high energy exhaust.

A few ion propulsion engines have already operated in space, but the technology is not mainstream.

Typically - a little oddly from my perspective, they use ionized xenon rather than the more easily ionized cesium.