TL;DR: Abandoned and derelict corvette and shuttle sized ships in highsec should be shootable without Concord or station or gate gun intervention.
Ships left at gates and stations in highsec that serve no tactical or strategic purpose are nothing more than space garbage. In the majority of cases, the players who leave their garbage there are no longer in the system themselves. Mostly these are ships that cost the players nothing or only a very small amount, like corvettes or shuttles. Presumably the purpose of this is to trap some inexperienced player into getting shot down by gate or station guns when they themselves fire on the abandoned ship.
Not only is wantonly leaving trash a violation of Terms of Service section 16 (has been so confirmed by a GM), but they will just stay there if no one takes pity and flies the things away or opens a ticket at CCP. So blameless players have to take care of other players’ leftovers. This problem goes back to 2004 (see: EVE Online | EVE Insider | Forums). Since it is simply not humanly okay to just dump your trash anywhere, neither in real life nor in New Eden, it would be good if a solution could be found here.
For example:
abandoned ships under cruiser size may be shot down in highsec with impunity, or
disposal with costs for the player who left his garbage (could enable a new profession in Eve ;-))
How about just flying a Capsule to such an abandoned ship, boarding it, flying it to a station or structure and either processing it there, or just adding it to the personal collection?
Shooting it down should result in a response from Concord in highsec.
That’s what I did first: fly with the pod to the abandoned ship (pod warps sooo fast), board and then scrap it in the station. After you’ve done that 15 times, you don’t feel like it anymore.
And as already written initial: why should uninvolved players remove the garbage of others? Or can people dump trash in front of your RL house and you dispose of it yourself every time? I doubt it.
And it IS a violation of Terms of Service section 16. So you should not support the violation of this by disposing of the garbage yourself and the polluter gets away without consequences.
Yes, @Brisc_Rubal , that is true. BUT, if the player who leaves the trash is no longer present in the system himself - which is the case 95% of the time - then this is virtually an AFK measure and absolutely pointless. And thus has lost any strategic or tactical benefit. Or in what way does the player who leaves a Shuttle or a Corvette benefit, if he or she is no longer present in the system?
I’m with you if the player leaving an empty ship, for example, is waiting nearby in another cloaked ship for someone to trap. But most of the time, the players are just not in the system anymore. Their garbage is.
The reverse - if this is not a problem at all - would mean that it is NOT a violation of Terms of Service section 16 and it is perfectly okay for us all to leave our trash in New Eden space. Then we can declare an annual litter day where each player leaves a corvette at gates or stations in highsec. What fun…
But if it is not okay after all, then something should be done about it.
I strongly disagree. One can shoot MTUs or MobileDepots without CONCORD intervention. Because you don’t shoot at a capsuleer, just assets in space.
This should apply to ALL non-manned assets in space, like wrecks, Containers, abandoned Ships, abandoned drones etc. Only bigger structures anchored on behalf a corp (POCO, POS, Upwell Structure) and piloted player ships/capsules should be protected by CONCORD.
Ccp barely enforced that. Look how long it took them to deal with the mobile depot spam at jita. Now that was an issue since it caused lagging. A few ships laying here and there, oh well, if its not causing gameplay issues just take traindrivers advice and keep doing it
Section 16 or not, strategic benefit or not. It’s kind of just picking apart the arguments instead of discussing the real issue.
Fact is, if it’s okay and allowed that we can just leave our corvettes and shuttles as garbage in New Eden space, then let’s all do it! If each player leaves one corvette per day per system, he/she does not create any lag himself/herself and cannot be prosecuted. And it only bothers the highsec players anyway, right?
And why exactly do we not see any abandoned cruisers or battleships at highsec gates or stations? Oh yes, that would be too expensive to leave them as garbage…
I just really don’t see what the issue would be to simply allowing to blow abandoned ships up? You’d get a weapons timer and a non-capsuleer agression logoff timer and in highsec a suspect flag for destroying/taking what is not yours. Problem solved?
The real issue here is that there isn’t a real issue.
Space is dirty. This is true in real life, it’s true in New Eden.
If you want to spend your in-game time cleaning up space debris, that’s fine, but we don’t need rules changes or to waste CCP dev time addressing something that really isn’t an issue unless you’ve got really bad OCD.
How can you “lose standing with your corporation?” That could only apply to pilots in NPC corps anyway. Or does it force your player corporation to set you red?
There is a difference between jettisoned cans and ships. The latter are more likely to appear on the overview when traveling through highsec. Sure, shuttles and corvettes can be filtered out of the overview, but that’s just looking the other way, isn’t it?
Is there a good game mechanics reason why it’s allowed to leave my abandoned corvettes at stations and gates in highsec - even if I’m no longer in the system myself?
I feel like a real gangster now 
