Yes, Nikita's Shoe, you're right - with contemporary technologies it's more profitable to leave our junk where it is instead of shooting it into space. And you're right about recycling - it would be a lot better as we would have even some profit out of it, as we'd be able to produce something useful again.

However, recycling is quite an Utopian thing in modern society. No one bothers, because they'll be dead by the time any serious problems occur.