NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 3, 2025 / For decades, the world has struggled to balance the economics of plastic waste with the urgency of sustainability. Policymakers imposed targets, companies pledged billions, and NGOs kept up the pressure. Yet the frameworks were never designed to succeed. Recycling programs focused narrowly on bottles and packaging while ignoring the much larger streams of industrial resins, automotive polymers, textiles, and electronics. The result was predictable: recycling rates stalled, incineration rose, and the promise of sustainable plastics remained an aspiration.
That is where SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) steps in. Its technology delivers what the UN Plastics Treaty has long placed on its wish list-replacing systems that failed with a platform that works. By tracking all categories of plastics, not just PET bottles or rPET packaging, SMX broadens the scope of recycling into entirely new markets. Dashboards can be made from recycled automotive polymers, electronics casings reborn from industrial resins, and textiles repurposed instead of burned. In short, every neglected stockpile and undervalued waste stream becomes a revenue opportunity, turning what was once written off into measurable value across the supply chain.
This shift is now moving from concept to reality. SMX and Singapore’s research agency ASTAR announced its mission to power the world’s first national plastics passport program. This is more than a compliance tool. By embedding molecular markers directly into materials, every kilogram of recycled plastic can now be verified, audited, and transformed into a financial instrument: the Plastic Cycle Token, or PCT.
SMX Makes Plastic a Bankable Asset
With that, SMX delivers material efficiency in its purest form. The proof isn’t a label on the outside of a product; it’s built inside. SMX’s patented molecular markers are embedded directly into plastics, metals, textiles, and natural rubber, giving every item a scannable, tamper-resistant identity tied to a verified digital passport. That link follows goods from origin through use, recycling, and even chemical transformation, proving recycled content, authenticity, and chain of custody in real time. The result is enforceable compliance, anti-counterfeiting, and true material efficiency that converts sustainability from promise to measurable value.
Unlike carbon credits, which have long battled accusations of opacity and double counting, PCTs are rooted in a tangible, physical trail. Each token corresponds to a verified unit of recycled plastic, giving it both accountability and tradability. This turns waste management into asset management. Recyclers can monetize output, brands can hedge their compliance exposure, and investors gain access to a new class of commodities tied directly to resource efficiency.
In a country like Singapore, the numbers are compelling. Redirecting just a third of today’s plastic waste into an SMX-verified loop could generate more than S$100 million annually in avoided incineration costs and new recycled resin value. For governments, this is fiscal efficiency. For brands, it’s proof. For markets, it’s an entirely new way of pricing sustainability.
What makes this moment transformative is not the technology alone, but the economic blueprint it creates. Across ASEAN, demand for post-consumer resin is surging, with premiums of 5% to 15% over virgin polymer already common in regulated sectors like automotive and electronics. As extended producer responsibility schemes tighten, verified supply will be worth even more. SMX’s model shows how supply chains can evolve from fragmented reporting systems into fully auditable markets, where sustainability is no longer a cost center but a profit driver.
Singapore’s program is historic on its own, but replicated regionally, the model unlocks an addressable market worth about S$4.2 billion annually in certified recycled materials and platform fees. The shift is clear: what once looked like a regulatory headache is now becoming a lever for competitiveness and growth.
SMX’s Defining Inflection Point
For SMX, this marks a shift from promise to proof. Years of pilots and R&D have culminated in the first national deployment of its platform. Singapore marks just the beginning. If this model spreads across ASEAN, SMX is positioned not only as a technology enabler, but as the architect of an entirely new marketplace.
The lesson here is simple: sustainability efforts fail when treated only as obligations. They succeed when they unlock new value. By converting plastics from environmental liabilities into verified financial assets, SMX is changing the conversation. Waste is no longer waste. It’s a resource with a measurable price, a tradable proof point, and a role in the next generation of global supply chains.
References
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National Environment Agency (NEA). Waste & Recycling Statistics 2014 – 2023. Singapore: NEA; 2024.
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Shunpoly.com. “How Much Plastic Is Wasted Each Year in Singapore?” Accessed 5 August 2025.
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National Environment Agency (NEA). Waste-Statistics & Overall Recycling (interactive dashboard). Updated 2024; accessed 5 August 2025.
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National Environment Agency (NEA). Mandatory Packaging Reporting portal. Accessed 5 August 2025.
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Singapore Statutes Online. Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations – Incineration gate-fee schedule; revised 2024.
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National Environment Agency (NEA). “New Licensing Regime for General Waste Disposal Facilities.” Technical brief & dialogue-session slides; 2024.
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Nasdaq.com. “SMX Announces Planned Launch of World’s First Plastic Cycle Token.” Press release; 2024.
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Yahoo! Finance. “SMX Plastic Cycle Token Is a Functional Market-Driven Solution…” News article; 2024.
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Los Angeles Tribune. “Carbon Credits Had Their Day… Now the SMX Plastic Cycle Token…” Feature article; 2025.
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National Environment Agency (NEA). Refuse Collection Fees for Households. Revised 2024; accessed 5 August 2025.
About SMX
As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.
Forward-Looking Statements
The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of gold, steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com
SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited
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