Re: Hopefully time limited
The main "could be worse" factor is that the perigee is quite low, so the orbit should decay reasonably fast.
Not as fast as a 400km circular orbit, unfortunately. With only brief dips to 400km, that second stage and its debris field could last decades. Recent Western practices for second stages are to get their perigees a bit lower or actively deorbit them (SpaceX) after payload release.
A nice database of debris entries and initial launch dates can be found here. Too many of those upper stages last decades in GTOs.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
