NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 15, 2025 / Recycling has always been treated as a cost. Cities pay for it, companies tolerate it, and consumers are told to feel good about it. But what happens when that cost center turns into a profit center? That is exactly the pivot SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is engineering with its latest partnership. On September 15, SMX announced a Letter of Intent with BT-Systems' Competence Center REDWAVE, and the implications go far beyond efficiency. Together, they are building the infrastructure for a new global marketplace where plastic waste is not just managed but traded, certified, and monetized.

The mechanics are deceptively simple. SMX embeds sub-molecular markers into materials that act like invisible fingerprints. Those fingerprints link to a blockchain-based digital passport that follows the material from production through recycling. It is proof that travels with the product. Add in the Plastic Cycle Token (PCT), and suddenly, proof can be priced, exchanged, and valued in financial markets. For the first time, waste is not a burden to carry but an asset to count.

REDWAVE brings the industrial horsepower to scale this vision. Their sorting and detection systems already anchor recycling plants around the world. They can handle volume at speeds most companies only dream of. But volume without verification has always been the Achilles heel of recycling. By integrating SMX's traceability into REDWAVE's platforms, every item moving down a conveyor can be both sorted and certified in real time. What once emerged as bales of questionable recycled plastic can now emerge as verified commodities ready to re-enter global supply chains.

Proof Instead of Declarations

Think about the knock-on effects. A car company can now show regulators exactly how much recycled plastic went into its dashboards. A packaging giant can prove to retailers that its products meet strict quotas. A government can enforce recycling mandates without relying on audits or paperwork. And investors can start treating verified recycling not as charity but as an entirely new asset class. Proof creates value, and value creates markets.

That is where the Plastic Cycle Token becomes the lever. Each verified batch of recycled plastic can generate a token tied to its certified status. Those tokens can be traded in open markets, giving brands a way to monetize sustainability, giving governments a tool to enforce policy, and giving investors a stake in the circular economy. For decades, recycled content was treated as the cheap cousin of virgin material. Now, with certification and tokenization, it can command premium pricing and build loyalty at the checkout.

SMX described this partnership as a pivotal step in setting global standards, and it's right. This is not about one factory or one jurisdiction. It is about creating a recognized framework that redefines the economics of waste everywhere. If REDWAVE systems can deliver certified commodities at scale, and if the PCT can attach tradable value to those commodities, then recycling is no longer an expense. It is a market.

Europe, Like Singapore, Wants to Set the Rules

On the Austrian side, REDWAVE's leadership sees the same horizon. They have always focused on efficiency, but efficiency without certification limits growth. By adding SMX's molecular traceability, they are opening new business models that did not exist before. Their machines will no longer just deliver sorted material. They will deliver certified value streams that brands, governments, and investors can trust.

The LOI sets the path for joint deployment, scaling up integrated systems, and establishing benchmarks that could become the global rulebook for recycling. Anyone who doubts the momentum should look at Singapore, where SMX's plastics passport initiative is already shaping national policy. When certification is embedded in the material itself, enforcement becomes automatic and markets can thrive. Europe is next in line, and REDWAVE is the perfect launchpad.

Recycling was never supposed to be a back-office chore. Done right, it is an economic engine waiting to be unleashed. SMX and REDWAVE are showing that the real future of recycling is not about compliance or penalties. It is about creating markets where proof drives value and value drives change. And in that market, plastic waste is no longer a liability. It is the newest global commodity.

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) Public Limited