The Albany Gazette - SMX Just Gave Cotton its First Circularity Engine, and the Fashion Industry Will Wear it Well

Cotton has been the clearest example of this problem. Once fibers enter mechanical recycling, their identity disappears. Whatever emerges from the process becomes a blend of unknown origins, unverifiable recycled percentages, and labels that depend on declarations rather than data. Circularity cannot function when the material itself becomes anonymous.

What the industry needed was not better messaging or more ambitious goals. It needed a measurable way to prove that recycled fiber actually survives the journey into finished products. Until now, that framework did not exist. Circularity failed not because brands lacked commitment, but because the supply chain lacked visibility. SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) just changed that.

A Material Identity That Survives the Entire Journey

During a multi-day industrial pilot, SMX did something the textile sector has never witnessed. It marked recycled cotton at the molecular level the moment it re-entered the value chain. That identity then survived every stage of production that normally wipes history clean. Shredding. Spraying. Carding. Spinning. Fabric formation. Finishing. Each step tested the limits of durability and detectability.

The results were conclusive. At every stage, the molecular identity remained intact. It stayed stable and readable, even under the high-intensity processes that typically destroy any form of tagging or documentation. This was not theory. It was proof. A scientific demonstration that cotton can carry its identity from waste to wearable.

This breakthrough is more than a technical achievement. It is the first durable backbone for circularity. For decades, recycled content percentages have been estimated. Now they can be verified. Post-consumer claims can finally connect to authenticated material evidence. The industry has never had this level of certainty. SMX delivered the first version of it.

When Circularity Becomes a Real Economy

Permanent molecular identity transforms recycled fiber into a measurable commodity. Brands can finally track the exact volume of recycled input that reaches the final textile. Manufacturers gain incentives to use higher recycled percentages because verified recycled output commands greater market value. Recyclers gain a certification layer that lifts their product into a premium category.

This is the moment circularity stops being a storytelling exercise and becomes a functioning economy. A recycled fiber market only gains strength when identity is consistent and verifiable. The SMX system delivers that consistency. It shifts circularity from aspiration into arithmetic. From ambition into infrastructure.

The impact extends across supply chains. Take-back programs gain a measurable purpose. Procurement teams negotiate based on authenticated recycled content instead of estimates. Sustainability departments can finally align their goals with financial outcomes. SMX did not just verify recycled cotton. It introduced the operating system circularity has been missing.

Circular Fashion Gets Its First True Infrastructure

With molecular identity in place, Product Digital Passports evolve from a regulatory requirement into a commercial advantage. Brands can automate documentation instead of stitching together paperwork. Exporters can streamline compliance across borders. Consumers gain confidence because sustainability claims become verifiable rather than merely suggestive.

Retailers, meanwhile, gain a new classification system. Apparel can be sorted, labeled, and sold based on authenticated truth. Circular cotton, for the first time, becomes a premium material class rather than an approximation of one. The value moves from the label to the fiber itself, where it belongs.

SMX's accomplishments in plastics, metals, and hardware have already shown that molecular identity reshapes markets. Cotton now joins that expanding list. When materials become verifiable, markets shift. When they become verifiable at scale, markets transform. This pilot demonstrates that the same engine SMX built for global materials can now power the future of circular fashion.

The Moment Circularity Becomes Real

Fashion has spent years describing a circular future, but aspiration alone has never delivered impact. What was missing was a system capable of confirming that circularity was actually occurring. SMX just supplied that system, and in doing so, changed the rules for an entire global industry.

This breakthrough is not merely a sustainability story. It is the moment circularity becomes measurable, profitable, and operational. Industries only evolve when measurement becomes possible, and measurement just became possible at the molecular level. Cotton now has a truth layer.

Now that SMX has delivered the engine, the rest of the fashion world will start building around it. The race to adopt this new infrastructure has already begun, and the winners will be those who embrace measurable circularity, not theoretical versions of it.

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 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.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

(D.Lewis--TAG)