HB 1718 was introduced in 2009 and was the outcome of Executive Order 07-02 (PDF file, 79KB) that was signed by the governor in February 2007 directing the Washington State Department of Ecology and Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development to develop a climate change initiative.

The Washington Climate Action Team (CAT) was created to address the initiative. The team included four implementation working groups including the Beyond Waste Implementation Working Group. In November, 2008, the CAT released a final report (PDF file, 620KB) proposing recommendations to reduce waste and green house gases through expansion of source reduction, reuse, recycling and composting and building on current waste management system. The report includes a Product Stewardship Framework approach as a key strategy to address greenhouse gas reduction (see Action 1B).  In 2009, content from this report was incorporated into HB 1718.