The greater the surface area the quicker the decay. So if these satellites naturally fall after 3-5 years that means that if they somehow collided with each oth

The greater the surface area the quicker the decay. So if these satellites naturally fall after 3-5 years that means that if they somehow collided with each other creating millions of pieces of debris they would clear out with in less than a year because of the loss of energy during the collisions and the increased surface area.