NEW YORK, NY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / October 2, 2025 / The plastics market isn't small change. It's a $824 billion global arena - and it's been hungry for proof. Not about the material itself, but about sustainability and recycling measures that can keep its environmental impact in check. The world is done with promises and pledges. What it demands now is verifiable evidence that recycled content is exactly what companies claim it to be.

That shift in expectation has exposed the weakness of decades of regulatory patchwork, greenwashing headlines, and conference speeches that never moved the needle. The market has boiled it down to a single truth: proof is currency. And in a $50 billion recycling market, that currency is worth a serious paycheck - one SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is positioning itself to collect.

SMX doesn't trade in abstractions and "hope-for's". Its molecular marker technology embeds proof at the material level, creating digital passports for plastics that survive the entire recycling loop. From collection through processing and back into new products, SMX tags materials with an unalterable identity - a marker that regulators, brands, and consumers alike can verify. That's particularly important, given that mistrust has kept capital on the sidelines and slowed adoption in this sector. In that sense, SMX's breakthrough isn't just a scientific achievement. It's economics.

Markets Demand "Proof" Over Promises

For the recycling market, the timing could not be more on queue. Global demand for recycled plastics is surging as governments impose quotas, consumer brands set targets, and investors push ESG funds to deliver measurable outcomes. Yet recycling rates remain stubbornly low, hovering in the teens in the U.S. and only modestly higher across Europe and Asia. The missing link has been verification. Without it, recycled plastics carry a discount, trust collapses, and the supply chain stalls. SMX's technology flips that script - making recycled plastic a premium product with traceable value.

The better news is that SMX has already proven its technology at scale, first by marking and tracing 21 tons of natural rubber from tree to tire, and it is now replicating that same methodology across plastics globally. In ASEAN, SMX has locked in multiple deals (with Bio-Packaging, Skypac, A*STAR, among others) to embed molecular markers at the point of extrusion, turning every film, wrapper or bag into a blockchain-verifiable digital twin.

In the U.S., SMX recently forged a strategic partnership with Tradepro to deploy FDA-compliant molecular marking in food-grade plastics, bringing traceability into one of the most heavily regulated segments. And, in collaboration with REDWAVE, SMX has completed proof-of-concept trials demonstrating the sorting and verification of flame-retardant and black plastics in recycling streams.

Proof Points Matter

With every new proof point across geographies and material types, the company isn't just participating in the circular economy; it's becoming its operating system. And in markets this large, the operating system tends to capture the lion's share of the value.

The story here is not regulation. Regulation sets the stage. The story is monetization, transforming waste into verifiable assets. SMX's molecular markers, combined with blockchain and tokenized credits like the Plastic Cycle Token (PCT), give plastics a tradable identity that can be bought, sold, and valued. That's more than compliance. That's an entirely new asset class built from materials the world once paid to discard.

The $50 billion question is no longer whether recycled plastics will matter. It's who will control the proof layer that makes the system run. SMX has spent years building the answer, and now it's entering the market at the exact moment proof has become non-negotiable.

For brands, regulators, and stakeholders, that's not just a shift. That's an entry point worth seizing. And all it takes is a phone call to start doing just that.

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.

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SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters)