(1) Except as provided in subsection (4) of this section, one year prior to the submission of a plan, a producer, group of producers, or a producer responsibility organization may submit a petition to the department to request for reasons of public health or safety the temporary exclusion of packaging used to contain the following categories of products, subcategories of the following categories of products, or individual products:

(a) Raw meat products that are demonstrated to transfer pathogens to direct contact packaging;

(b) Products regulated under the poison prevention packaging act of 1970; and

(c) Products subject to requirements under federal laws that make their inclusion in the requirements of this chapter infeasible or inadvisable.

(2) A petition must provide information that is necessary and sufficient for the department to make a determination including, at a minimum, the following:

(a) The technical feasibility of including the category of product, subcategory of product, or individual product in the program created by this chapter, and in recycling the packaging of the product or products;

(b) An analysis of any potential risks to public health and safety associated with the inclusion of a category of product, subcategory of product, or individual product in the program created by this chapter, and in recycling the packaging of the product or products; and

(c) The progress made by producers in achieving the goals of this chapter, including by reducing the amount of packaging used with the products, increasing the recycled content of the product packaging, and increasing the ability of the products' packaging to be reused, composted, or recycled if appropriate.

(3) The department must make a determination and notify the petitioner within 90 days of receipt of the petition.

(4) The producer of a product that is temporarily excluded from the requirements of this chapter under this section must report, directly to the department in a form created by the department, the information related to the temporarily excluded product that is required to be reported to the department by producer responsibility organizations under RCW 70A.208.030 and 70A.208.200.