The space-junk clean-up cost can be paid individually

That doesnt sound like a very efficient use of the resources needed to clean up space junk. Besides, we dont expect every car owner to separately arrange for the removal of junk in the road; thats what governments are for.

> > That's a very intriguing application. It would require government funding, though, as I don't see how there's any other obvious customer for clearing space junk.
> What is it worth to space industry to clean out the space junk? If enough, then the users should be willing to pay some number less than the anticipated cost.

The cost would not necessarily have to be paid collectively. Since space trajectories can be tracked and predicted, individual satellite oweners could pay to remove only the space-junk that specifically affects them. For example, my satellite might only be endangered in the next decade by two particular pieces of space junk. I could then alone pay the relatively small price to have just those two pieces of space junk de-orbited.