NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 15, 2025 / Recycling has long been treated as a housekeeping chore, tucked under the banner of corporate social responsibility or municipal compliance. But in 2025, that narrative is outdated. Recycling has become a question of sovereignty. Nations are realizing that whoever controls verified recycling systems controls more than waste streams. They control trade flows, tariff enforcement, and access to critical supply chains. That is the high ground SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) just stepped onto with its new partnership.
On September 15, SMX announced a Letter of Intent with BT-Systems' Competence Center REDWAVE, a global leader in sorting solutions. This is not just another industrial collaboration. It is Europe planting its flag in the global race to define how plastic waste is tracked, certified, and monetized. Singapore made the first move with its national plastics passport, powered by SMX. Now, with REDWAVE, Europe is showing it intends to play just as aggressively.
Once executed, this partnership becomes the master key that unlocks commercial value from circularity, shifting it from a lofty ambition into real-world action and setting the master plan for how waste is measured, priced, and rewarded across global markets.
Igniting A Stalled Recycling Engine
The stakes are enormous. Recycling rates have stagnated for decades, but the problem has never been a lack of effort. It has been a lack of credible systems. Without consistent standards, every region plays by its own rules, leaving multinational brands to guess what counts as compliant. Without embedded proof, most recycled content is unverifiable, which leaves the door open for greenwashing. And without financial incentives, recycling remains a cost center instead of a growth engine.
SMX's technology is designed to break those deadlocks. By embedding molecular markers into materials themselves, the company creates a permanent identity that travels with the product. That identity links to a blockchain-secured digital passport that proves origin, quality, and compliance. For regulators, it turns vague targets into enforceable policy. For companies, it transforms recycling into a balance sheet asset. For consumers, it eliminates the doubt that "recycled" on a label actually means what it says.
This is where sovereignty comes into play. Verified recycling systems don't just keep trash out of landfills. They define who can export, who can import, and under what terms. If Europe builds a certified recycling standard with SMX and REDWAVE, then every trading partner who wants access to European markets will have to play by that standard. That is not compliance. That is leverage.
SMX's PCT Is Another Value Driver
The Plastic Cycle Token (PCT) extends that leverage into financial markets. Once materials are verified through SMX's system, the PCT allows them to be tokenized and traded. That means governments can enforce quotas with financial teeth, companies can monetize circularity, and investors can price recycling as a legitimate commodity. In a world where tariffs, trade wars, and supply chain bottlenecks dominate headlines, having a certified, tradable system for plastics isn't just about sustainability. It is about economic power.
REDWAVE brings the industrial backbone to make this real. Their high-speed sorting and detection systems already power recycling plants worldwide. By integrating SMX's molecular traceability, those plants will no longer just separate materials. They will produce certified commodities, verified at the speed of industry. Europe's recycling infrastructure becomes not just cleaner but strategically stronger.
The partnership is more than technical. It is geopolitical. Europe has the chance to set the benchmark for recycling the same way it once set the benchmark for data privacy with GDPR. With SMX and REDWAVE at the core, that benchmark is enforceable, scalable, and profitable.
The next steps outlined in the LOI are clear: industrial deployment, scaling of integrated systems, and the creation of benchmarks for global adoption. Once those benchmarks are in place, the geopolitical consequences will be hard to ignore. Countries without credible recycling systems will find themselves locked out of high-value markets. Companies without verified supply chains will struggle to compete. And nations that move quickly, like Singapore and now Europe, will enjoy a new form of sovereignty built not on fossil fuels or rare earths, but on plastic.
Recycling as sovereignty. That is the new reality. And once again, SMX is at the center of the shift.
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: info@securitymattersltd.com
SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited
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