[lxgr]

You'd still have an eccentric orbit intersecting some "higher" ones periodically, no?

Certainly less dangerous than something "going the wrong way" in a given orbital shell, but not sure if it's completely negligible either.

[Dylan16807]

For the lucky few pieces that launch at just the right angle, they'll spend a few months or years intermittently intersecting higher orbits.

But almost all the debris will either stay close to the original orbit or burn up within hours.