WOrse things:

https://www.treehugger.com/shipwrecks-could-sink-environment...

I'm imaging the rationale is probably that the amount of space junk ending up in the ocean is far far far less than the amount of terrestrial junk ending up in the ocean.

EDIT:

Not defending the reasoning just saying it's probably what they used.

Just because most of the windows are smashed, doesn’t mean it’s okay to smash a few more.

Even if it were offset by other marine environment investment. Hell, create a trust and drop a 10th of the recover cost in each time so that when recovery is cheaper in the future, it could be funded by all the compounded money.

If you want to retrieve it, it's probably yours.

Because it doesn't make sense to waste thousands of tons of fuel to recover what is basically metal from the ocean floor. This kind of almost religious view of the environment is exactly the same error behind some incredibly stupid decisions like germany getting rid of their nuclear power plants (and now they are burning coal, genius!)

It doesn’t make sense for the largest polluter to spend money to reduce the pollution they create.

I asked about thought, rather than something definitive like ‘they SHOULD retrieve them.

Likening someone’s question to ‘stupid decisions’ will not help you win friends or influence people.

It is not just money. Wasting fuel has a far more damaging impact on the nature than the negligible impact of having some metal tanks in the bottom of the ocean. It is not like sea water is distilled water.