IANARS (I am not a rocket scientist), but have done much work-related research in the space junk population calculations.

Many other posts have already stated that most of the pieces of junk will never be able to be captured with way, due to small size and/or relative velocity issues.

We will never be able to effectively use space travel until we solve this. If the space junk population continues to increase, it is liable to set off a collision cascade effect (Kessler syndrome) - errant junk colliding with larger pieces to create more small pieces to collide with other objects, and so on. Kinda like a nuclear reactor, or the analogous 'room full of ping-pong-loaded mouse traps' demonstration... Space travel could be even more dangerous when this happens.

For the time being, we can steer our craft around the larger pieces of junk that we can track, put shielding on our craft to protect us from the small pieces. But there's a size range of pieces that are too small to be tracked, but too large to be effectively shielded.

The solution to this problem has to start at the top - take out the biggest pieces of space junk - that will reduce the chance of the collision cascade effect. A fleet of mini space tugs, each programed to safely de-orbit a specific piece of junk, should be able to put a significant dent in the problem. The use of lasers would complement the work. Hopefully, as our technology and experience increase with this, we'll be able to remove the smaller pieces as effectively.