The Albany Gazette - Material Efficiency: The SMX Tool That Matches Intent with Promise

It's a major step forward - and one that advocacy groups like the Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) have long championed. Their tireless efforts to raise awareness, challenge greenwashing, and push for stronger legislation have helped shape the global conversation about plastic waste and corporate accountability.

But even they've pointed to the disconnect: intent doesn't equal impact without real enforcement. If the world is going to regulate recycled content and close the loop on plastic, it needs systems that go beyond slogans. That's where SMX (Security Matters) (NASDAQ:SMX) enters - not as a disruptor, regulator, or judge, but as a silent partner in verification.

SMX doesn't shape recycling policy. But once that policy is written, it provides the tools to help make it real. Because if circularity is going to be measured, it needs a way to be seen - from the inside out. And that's exactly what SMX enables.

Policy Is Leading, Now It Needs Infrastructure to Keep Pace

It also makes circularity economically viable through material efficiency. SMX's technology allows companies to reintroduce their own materials - those that have already completed lifecycle one, two, three, or more-into new production cycles without sacrificing quality, performance, or brand identity.

This means premium and original brand goods can be made from their own recycled inputs, with full traceability and without compromising intellectual property or brand integrity. At the corporate level, this capability unlocks meaningful cost advantages: eliminating dependence on virgin material amid geopolitical risks, reducing insurance exposure, and meeting corporate sustainability mandates with traceable proof. In short, SMX turns reuse into an asset - not a liability - making sustainability, and circularity, not only possible, but practical and profitable.

And this tool comes at a time when demand for it could soar. The EU has mandated 30% recycled content in PET beverage bottles. U.S. states like California and Washington are implementing their own minimum thresholds. Global brands from Coca-Cola to Unilever have pledged to increase the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials across packaging and product lines.

This is progress-and it deserves recognition.

But as mandates expand, so do the challenges. Recycled content is notoriously difficult to audit. Paperwork can be inconsistent. Labels are often self-reported. And material flows cross continents, making traceability even harder to enforce.

That's not a failure of leadership. It's a limitation of the tools available to support it.

Tracking The Circular Chain Through Material Efficiency

SMX provides a way to track and trace materials at the molecular level - embedding invisible markers into plastics and other recyclables at the point of origin. These markers stay with the material throughout its lifecycle, allowing for real-time verification of where it came from, how it was processed, and whether it meets regulatory standards.

It doesn't replace regulation. It supports it - with verifiable data that can't be altered, removed, or faked. And with SMX's Plastic Cycle Token (PCT), that verification becomes more than just compliance-it becomes measurable value. The PCT enables materials with verified recycled content to be accounted for, traded, and even monetized through trusted digital infrastructure.

It's how circularity evolves from ambition to execution-and from execution to economic reward.

Recycled Content Isn't a Label, It Should Be a Ledger

The Plastic Pollution Coalition is right to call out misleading claims and superficial fixes. But what they - and others - are emphasizing is the need for systems with teeth. Not more paperwork. More proof.

For governments, that means issuing certifications based on facts, not estimates. For brands, it means finally being able to support sustainability claims with embedded data - not marketing language that vanishes in the supply chain. And for consumers, it means being able to trust that "100% recycled" really means what it says.

SMX doesn't judge the claim. It simply provides the means to prove it - or not.

That shifts recycled content from slogan to asset - verifiable, traceable, and even monetizable. And it levels the playing field by exposing gaps without assigning blame.

Circularity Can't Be a Guess; It Has to Be Accountable

Let's be clear: SMX isn't here to write recycling mandates or enforce them. That work is being done - by policymakers, global brands, and advocacy groups like PPC, who continue to push for systems that are measurable, not theoretical.

But success takes more than vision. It requires infrastructure. Because if recycled content is going to be regulated, it also needs to be accounted for - not just estimated. And certainly not just once at the end of a product's life, but continuously, from production to reuse.

That's where SMX technology - and its Plastic Cycle Token (PCT) - fortifies the system, turning verified circularity into something measurable, tradable, and reportable. It transforms sustainability from a promise into a performance-based asset class, grounded in verifiable truth rather than aspirational claims. With precision, accountability, and trust built directly into the product, SMX delivers the infrastructure needed to make circularity real-and make it work.

Sources and references:

• https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-consults-new-rules-chemically-recycled-content-plastic-bottles-2025-07-08_en

• https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

• https://calrecycle.ca.gov/wcs/recyclinglabels/

• https://ecology.wa.gov/regulations-permits/guidance-technical-assistance/recycled-content-products

• https://packagingeurope.com/news/unilever-coca-cola-nestle-and-more-back-ambitious-plastics-treaty/12999.article

• https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2024/6/4/plastic-recycling-is-a-false-solution-to-plastic-pollution

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.

SMX (Security Matters)

EMAIL: [email protected]

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

(F.Allen--TAG)