When the ashtrays are full doesn't everyone get a new car ? Why do you think they are scanning the universe for worlds that are Earthlike ?
I think there are a number of suggestions on how to tackle the issue, but at the relative speeds the bits move I don't think it's likely to be easy. May need something that is durable when hit and can sweep stuff downwards to burn up in our atmosphere.
Would that it's all we had to worry about....that's a big place out there, visited by very few people...and if and when this junk affects commerce or defence it will rapidly be fixed or nullified by even more technology.
The "visualisation" in the article is ridiculous and meaningless.