The Albany Gazette - The New Age of Parity: The Way to a Global Standard of Plastic with SMX

Plastic is no longer just a commodity. It is becoming a strategic material.

For decades, the economics of plastic were deceptively simple. Virgin resin, derived from oil and gas, was generally cheaper, more consistent, and easier to scale than recycled alternatives. Recycling, while environmentally desirable, often depended on corporate pledges, regulatory pressure, or reputational value. In practical terms, it carried a "green premium" - commonly a 20% to 40% price disadvantage in many markets - not because the material itself lacked value, but because the system around it was fragmented, inefficient, and difficult to verify.

That equation is now starting to break down.

As plastic prices rise and supply chains become less predictable, recycling is being pulled out of the realm of environmental aspiration and pushed into the center of economic survival. The issue is no longer only about waste reduction. It is about inflation, affordability, manufacturing stability, and whether everyday goods can remain within reach for consumers.

In many parts of the world, plastic can no longer be treated as cheap, endlessly available, or insulated from geopolitical events. It is increasingly exposed to oil shocks, regional conflict, petrochemical disruption, and global trade friction.

Recent reporting has already shown how severe that pressure can become. An April 2026 report from IDNFinancials found that supply disruptions connected to instability in the Middle East pushed domestic plastic prices up "by as much as 100%." The report detailed how conflict-related disruption in oil and petrochemical markets is now translating directly into higher plastic costs across consumer and industrial sectors.

IDNFinancials - Supply disruption pushes domestic plastic prices up by as much as 100%

URL: https://www.idnfinancials.com/news/62755/supply-disruption-pushes-domestic-plastic-prices-up-by-as-much-as-100

That creates both a systemic global risk and a generational infrastructure opportunity.

The reason is structural. Virgin plastic is tied directly to oil and gas. Feedstock can account for roughly 60% of production cost, while energy and utilities add additional exposure. When oil, gas, and petrochemical markets reprice, virgin plastic reprices with them. Recycled plastic, by contrast, is driven more by collection, logistics, sorting, cleaning, processing, and certification. Those costs are real, but they are not exposed to raw material shocks in the same way.

That asymmetry is now becoming critical.

As energy volatility rises, virgin plastic loses some of the predictability that made it dominant. At the same time, regulatory pressure is increasing the cost burden on virgin production. Carbon pricing, plastic taxes, extended producer responsibility programs, mandatory recycled content rules, and lifecycle compliance requirements are beginning to internalize costs that were once pushed onto governments, municipalities, and consumers.

In other words, the world is beginning to charge plastic for the problems it creates.

That matters because regulation is no longer only about penalties. It is increasingly about market access. Companies unable to prove recycled content, verify material origin, or document lifecycle compliance may face restrictions from regulators, procurement systems, customers, retailers, or investors. The economics of plastic are therefore being reshaped from both directions: energy and feedstock volatility on one side, compliance and verification pressure on the other.

Plastic matters because it sits beneath much of modern life. After World War II, plastic helped remake manufacturing, packaging, healthcare, transportation, electronics, infrastructure, and consumer goods. It was inexpensive, lightweight, durable, scalable, and adaptable. Those qualities made it one of the defining materials of the modern economy.

From sterile medical products and food packaging to car parts, electronics, household goods, and industrial components, modern convenience and affordability have been built in large part on the assumption that plastic would always be abundant.

That assumption is now weakening.

Global waste data add urgency to the problem. The World Bank's new "What a Waste 3.0" findings estimate that nearly 29% of global plastic waste - roughly 93 million tonnes each year - is mismanaged. At the same time, total global waste volumes are expected to rise sharply in the decades ahead.

World Bank - Ten Charts that Explain the Global Waste Crisis / What a Waste 3.0

URL: https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/sustainablecities/what-a-waste-3-charts

This collision of price volatility, supply risk, regulatory cost, and mismanaged waste points to a new economic requirement: verified recycling and material intelligence. The world does not simply need to recycle more plastic. It needs to know what that plastic is, where it came from, what it contains, how it moved through the supply chain, and whether it can be trusted to re-enter manufacturing at scale.

That is the shift from volume to verification.

Historically, recycled plastic has struggled because the market lacked reliable proof. Collection systems are fragmented. Contamination is common. Quality varies. Certificates can be incomplete, self-declared, or difficult to audit. That lack of trust acts like a hidden tax on the market. It forces buyers to spend more on verification, creates uncertainty around quality, and limits adoption even when recycled materials become economically attractive.

SMX is targeting that hidden tax.

SMX has developed molecular marking and digital traceability technology designed to give materials a persistent identity throughout their lifecycle. By embedding an invisible molecular marker directly into plastic and linking it to a secure digital record, SMX enables materials to carry verifiable data connected to origin, composition, recycled content, chain of custody, and lifecycle history. The result is a form of material intelligence - a durable, traceable identity for physical goods.

That changes the economic role of recycling. Verification moves from a back-office paperwork exercise into core market infrastructure. Instead of relying only on certificates, claims, or after-the-fact audits, materials themselves can carry proof. That proof can be checked, authenticated, and connected to the data needed by manufacturers, regulators, investors, and customers.

The implications go far beyond sustainability messaging.

When recycled materials can be authenticated, tracked, certified, and trusted at scale, manufacturers may gain a stronger buffer against oil price swings, resource shortages, supply breakdowns, and compliance costs. That matters directly to consumers because material volatility eventually shows up in the price of everyday goods. Without better systems for verified reuse, those costs are more likely to be passed down through the economy.

This is where the economics become powerful. As verification improves, the recycled premium begins to compress. Buyers gain confidence in material quality. Contamination risk can be reduced. Certification becomes more efficient. Compliance becomes easier to document. Over time, recycling is no longer merely an environmental expense. It becomes a procurement advantage, a compliance advantage, and potentially a cost advantage.

That is the deeper meaning of parity.

Parity is not just the moment recycled plastic becomes competitive with virgin plastic. It is the moment markets begin to recognize that recycled materials, when verified, can carry value that virgin materials cannot: traceability, lifecycle data, compliance proof, circularity credentials, and potentially new financial utility.

SMX's platform points toward that future. By giving materials memory, the company is helping turn waste into something more valuable than discarded feedstock. Verified plastic can become a feedstock, a data stream, a compliance record, and a measurable economic asset. In that framework, circularity is not an abstract ESG claim. It becomes something that can be recorded, priced, audited, traded, and trusted.

That shift is especially important as global manufacturers face rising pressure to prove what they make, where it comes from, and how it moves through the economy. From packaging and fashion to automotive, electronics, construction, and consumer goods, the direction of travel is clear: claims are no longer enough. Markets are moving from promises to proof.

The stakes are high because plastic is not a marginal material. It is part of the operating system of modern life.

Without reliable ways to recover, verify, and reuse recyclable plastics, societies could face a future in which essential products become more expensive, less stable in supply, and harder to access. Recycling, once discussed mainly as an environmental responsibility, may become a central tool for protecting economic resilience and preserving standards of living.

That is why SMX's "Age of Parity" matters.

The great repricing of plastic is no longer theoretical. Energy volatility, regulatory pressure, supply disruption, and system inefficiencies are already closing the cost gap between virgin and recycled materials. Trust-enforcing technologies like SMX may accelerate that shift by replacing self-declared claims with verifiable proof.

The question is no longer whether recycling can compete with virgin plastic on environmental grounds. The question is whether global markets are ready for recycled materials that can compete on price, reliability, compliance, and verified value.

In that new economy, affordability may depend not only on producing more plastic, but on proving the value of the plastic already in circulation.

Press Contact: Billy White/ [email protected]

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

(A.Johnson--TAG)