The Albany Gazette - SMX Becomes the Ghost Buster of Buried Black Carbon and Fire Retardant Plastics (NASDAQ:SMX)

Exposing carbon black and flame-retardant plastics with one scan

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 19, 2025 / The world has been told for years that we must choose between sustainability and safety. If we want recycled materials, we may have to accept a compromise in performance. If we want maximum fire safety, we may have to tolerate chemicals whose presence can only be assumed, not proven. That false choice has haunted regulators, manufacturers, and consumers alike, because no one has been able to deliver both with certainty. Until now.

SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) has created a breakthrough that makes the trade-off vanish. By embedding molecular markers directly into materials, the company enables a single scan to do something no one thought possible. It can prove that a product contains verifiable recycled content and, at the very same time, confirm that it holds the flame retardants necessary to protect lives. Recycling verified. Fire safety verified. Ghost plastics exposed. One scan, two proofs, zero compromise.

Because this goes deeper than traditional recycling blind spots. SMX is the first company to track and certify the invisible "ghost plastics" - the carbon black and flame-retardant compounds that conventional systems cannot detect and usually banish to landfills or incinerators. By making the invisible visible, SMX has brought the hardest plastics out of the graveyard and back into supply chains with proof built in.

Old Systems Failed
This matters because the old system has failed on both counts. Recycling has too often been a story of good intentions undermined by weak follow-through. Materials labeled as sustainable turn out to be nothing of the sort once traced back through the supply chain. Consumers are left skeptical, governments are left guessing, and progress stalls. Flame retardants have been no less problematic. Producers assert their chemicals are present and effective, but when tested in the real world, too many products fall short. The Grenfell Tower fire in London proved the cost of that gap in the starkest terms imaginable. Materials sold as fire-resistant accelerated a tragedy that claimed dozens of lives and left regulators grasping for answers.

SMX's technology changes that equation entirely. By embedding proof into the molecular structure of materials, sustainability and safety can now be verified together. No paperwork. No assumptions. No loopholes. A scan can verify to regulators that recycled content is real, inform insurers that flame retardants are indeed present, and confirm to manufacturers that products leaving their plants meet all claims stated on their labels. And critically, it can expose the ghost plastics that have haunted the system for decades, turning them from invisible waste into verifiable assets.

The vision is not a far-off dream. It is already in motion. In Singapore, SMX is working with A*STAR to build the world's first national plastics passport platform. Every unit of plastic carries its own digital identity tied to molecular proof, giving policymakers a tool to enforce circularity targets with science instead of slogans. In Europe, SMX has an LOI with REDWAVE to place this verification directly on factory floors, turning conveyor belts into checkpoints of trust where proof is built into the process. These programs demonstrate that the system is both scalable and practical.

One Scan, Two Verifications
Now comes the next chapter, and it is the most profound yet. SMX is extending this same verification to flame retardants, and doing so with the full engagement of the North American Flame Retardant Alliance. NAFRA represents the largest producers and distributors in the field, and for years, it has faced the credibility problem head-on. Working with SMX, the alliance can finally replace claims with proof. It can tell regulators that fire safety is no longer a matter of assumption. It can tell the public that disasters like Grenfell will not be repeated on its watch. And it can prove that recycled materials can be both safe and sustainable in the very applications where performance is non-negotiable.

The combination is nothing short of transformational. For the first time, recycled plastics can flow into high-risk sectors like construction, aviation, and automotive without a shadow of doubt about their safety. Flame retardants can be certified in real time, creating a new benchmark for compliance that is global, enforceable, and transparent. Insurers can reduce liability, governments can move from paper mandates to scientific enforcement, and manufacturers can reclaim consumer trust.

An Action, Not a Mission Statement
SMX has always been clear about its mission. It is not to talk about a circular economy, but to make it enforceable. It is not to debate fire safety, but to prove it. The company is delivering a system where sustainability and safety are not two competing goals but two halves of the same scan. Recycling and fire resistance, verified together, with ghost plastics exposed for the first time in history.

The message to the world is as clear as it is overdue. We do not have to choose between safety and sustainability. We can demand and verify both. With partners like A*STAR, REDWAVE, and NAFRA, SMX has built the infrastructure to make it happen. The false trade-off is gone. In its place is a new reality, one scan that proves what matters most: that the future can be sustainable, safe, and filled with the ghost plastics we used to bury.

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: [email protected]

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters)

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(T.Brown--TAG)