I noticed that after the last Dnepr launch, it's upper stage was raised to an apogee of 1454 km, putting it in a 1454 km x 609 km orbit with a 97.9 degree inclination, in order to avoid collision with any of the 37 satellites it released.
There are, however, no legally binding requirements regarding debris
mitigation.
International agreement requires that objects in orbits lower than 2000 km must exit that region within 25 years after end of mission. Objects in orbits above 2000 km can remain there for longer than 25 years in a "disposal orbit", but only a few missions have the excess propulsion capacity to reach that orbit. Some US Government missions have disposed of upper stages to a higher orbit to avoid the need to issue a Notice to Airmen concerning the falling debris hazard. At least one polar orbiting weather satellite launch sent the upper stage on an Earth escape trajectory for disposal.
It would seem that the Dnepr orbit is still too low to satisfy the international requirement.
In the case of amateur transponder satellites they can be assumed to have an operation lifetime of 40+ years (think OSCAR-7), as I recall debris
mitigation
suggests re-entry within 25 years of the end of mission. For amateur
transponder
satellites this might imply 65 years in orbit.
NASA is considering a revision to this policy to specify a total lifetime in LEO of no more than 30 years regardless of mission lifetime.
Other interesting facts from Scott Hull's July 1 colloquium at NASA Goddard include:
1. There are about 22,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters in the NORAD database, an estimated 500,000 objects between 1 and 10 centimeters which are too small to track, and millions of objects less than one centimeter. The Chinese Fengyun 1C disintegration in 2007 produced about 2850 trackable pieces of debris. The new S-band space fence will be capable of tracking objects larger than 5 centimeters when it becomes operational in 2018.
2. There are about 4000 dead satellites on orbit, and about 1000 active satellites.
3. The debris population has peaks at 750, 900 and 1400 km. You would have to go to Saturn to find a worse debris environment than that of a 750 km Low Earth Orbit. Science missions can be difficult when you live in a minefield.
4. Most spacecraft disintegrations are caused by battery and pressure vessel explosions. Nickel hydrogen batteries are most susceptible to explosion but NiCd and lithium ion batteries can also explode. A lithium ion battery must NEVER be recharged after it has been fully drained. Rocket bodies left in GTO are subject to explosion when the perigee height dips low enough to begin atmospheric heating, which can cause remaining fuel in the tanks to explode. Modern mission design requires that batteries be disconnected from solar arrays and fully discharged and pressure tanks vented to space at the end of the satellite mission.
5. Space is still pretty big. We have been lucky so far. Statistics predict another eight or nine major collisions in the next 40 years with just the current population of debris.
6. The movie "Gravity" did have a science adviser, and they did get a few things right, namely that there were no loud sounds when the debris struck the shuttle, and objects with lower area to mass ratio arrived first. Nevertheless most NASA folks still consider the movie to be a comedy. If you have the DVD there is an additional 20 minute documentary video about orbital debris on the disk.
For more information see http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faqs.html#6
73, Dan Schultz N8FGV