NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 4, 2025 / Governments, companies, and NGOs have long sought ways to make plastic recycling work at scale. Policymakers set bold targets, global brands committed billions, and environmental advocates pressed for accountability. The intent was never in question. What failed was the system. Recycling frameworks were designed too narrowly, focusing on a sliver of plastics like PET and rPET food-grade packaging while leaving out industrial polymers, automotive resins, textiles, and electronics. The result was a loop that could never fully close, even with the best of intentions.

That broken design is exactly what Singapore is now setting out to fix. In collaboration with SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) and its national research powerhouse ASTAR, the nation is building the world's first country-backed plastic passport program. This is not another set of pledges or pilot projects. It is part of a national infrastructure that, with SMX's technology, permanently marks plastics at the molecular level and verifies their lifecycle from manufacturing to recycling. More directly said, SMX turns materials into data: its molecular markers give every item a scannable, tamper-resistant digital identity that follows goods from origin through use, reuse, and chemical transformation, proving recycled content, authenticity, and chain of custody in real time.

The result is enforceable compliance, protection against counterfeiting, and true material efficiency that converts sustainability from promise to measurable value. By doing so, Singapore is proving that intent can finally be matched with proof, at a moment when the need could not be more urgent.

Singapore generates about 957,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually. Today, 94% of waste is incinerated, and only 6% is recycled. That imbalance is not only environmental, it is economic. Redirecting just one-third of that waste stream into an SMX-verified recycling loop would avoid S$27 million in incineration fees while creating S$75 million in certified post-consumer resin value. Combined, that is a compliance dividend worth more than S$100 million per year. It proves that sustainability programs, when designed correctly, pay for themselves.

A Blueprint For Impact, Not Headlines

Rolling out for impact, Phase 1 will cover more than 5,000 tonnes of post-consumer rigid and flexible plastics. Semi-industrial deployment begins in Q1 2026, followed by a full commercial showcase in Q2 2027. The timing is deliberate, aligning with Singapore's tightening extended producer responsibility mandates and giving brands and producers a ready-made compliance pathway. Once fully scaled, the system will support tagging and tracing capacity of more than 5,000 tonnes annually, supported by a coalition of global and regional brands, retailers, resin producers, converters, and recyclers. What was once a fragmented patchwork is becoming a unified and auditable national system.

The breakthrough does not stop with tracking. Every kilogram of SMX-verified recycled plastic can also be paired with a Plastic Cycle Token, or PCT. This instrument is backed one-to-one by the molecular marker and its verified audit trail, transforming recycled output into a transparent and tradeable asset. Unlike traditional carbon credits, which have struggled with opacity and credibility, the PCT is built to be measurable, auditable, and economically useful. It allows recyclers to monetize verified output, brands to hedge compliance risks, and investors to treat recycling as a new class of commodity.

For SMX itself, this marks a massive inflection point. Years of R&D and smaller-scale pilots have now converged into the world's first national deployment, positioning SMX at the center of a program that blends technology, policy, and economic impact. What was once a forward-looking promise is now a real-world proving ground, and that shift has the potential to open doors far beyond Singapore. Stakeholders will see this not just as validation of SMX's model, but as the start of a regional blueprint ready to be replicated.

SMX Plastics Passport Serves Surging Global Interests

And it can serve a significant amount of existing demand. FMCG companies, electronics suppliers, and automotive manufacturers across Asia are writing minimum post-consumer resin thresholds into procurement scorecards. Verified PCR already commands a 5% to 15% premium over virgin polymer in regulated sectors, and that premium is expected to widen as EPR schemes spread across Asia. With compliance costs rising and reputational risks looming, companies no longer see traceability as optional. They see it as insurance against shocks and a lever for growth.

While Singapore's national program is historic on its own, the regional implications are even greater. Replicated across ASEAN, the SMX-ASTAR model unlocks an addressable market worth about S$4.2 billion annually in certified recycled materials and platform fees. It demonstrates how supply chain circularity, once viewed as a compliance burden, can instead drive competitiveness and economic resilience. When waste becomes a bankable commodity, sustainability shifts from aspiration to execution.

SMX's Inflection Point On The World Stage

The most important lesson is that this progress builds on intent. The effort to fix plastics was never undermined by a lack of ambition or funding. It was undermined by a system that was too narrow in scope to succeed. By correcting that flaw and creating a model that captures the full spectrum of plastics, Singapore, SMX, and ASTAR will be able to tangibly prove that pledges became reality.

This moment does not just showcase Singapore's leadership. It defines SMX's turning point. The company is no longer talking about pilots or potential; it is operating at a national scale, with government backing, and with a technology that transforms waste into verifiable value.

That transition puts SMX in rare territory, as both a technology enabler and a market architect. For the market, it signals the kind of structural shift that redefines a company's trajectory, from proving capability to owning a category. Singapore may be the first chapter, but it is only the beginning of where SMX can take this model.

References

• https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/recycled-plastic-market-102568#:~:text=The%20global%20recycled%20plastics%20market,share%20of%2060.55%25%20in%202023.

• https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/carbon-credits-and-offsets-explained/

• National Environment Agency (NEA). Waste & Recycling Statistics 2014 - 2023. Singapore: NEA; 2024.

• Shunpoly.com. "How Much Plastic Is Wasted Each Year in Singapore?" Accessed 5 August 2025.

• National Environment Agency (NEA). Waste-Statistics & Overall Recycling (interactive dashboard). Updated 2024; accessed 5 August 2025.

• National Environment Agency (NEA). Mandatory Packaging Reporting portal. Accessed 5 August 2025.

• Singapore Statutes Online. Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations - Incineration gate-fee schedule; revised 2024.

• National Environment Agency (NEA). "New Licensing Regime for General Waste Disposal Facilities." Technical brief & dialogue-session slides; 2024.

• Nasdaq.com. "SMX Announces Planned Launch of World's First Plastic Cycle Token." Press release; 2024.

• Yahoo! Finance. "SMX Plastic Cycle Token Is a Functional Market-Driven Solution…" News article; 2024.

• Los Angeles Tribune. "Carbon Credits Had Their Day… Now the SMX Plastic Cycle Token…" Feature article; 2025.

• National Environment Agency (NEA). Refuse Collection Fees for Households. Revised 2024; accessed 5 August 2025.

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