NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 18, 2025 / The strength of a nation is measured not only by its military or its economy but by the resilience of its infrastructure. Airports, hospitals, data centers, energy grids, defense facilities, and high-rise buildings are the quiet backbone of modern life, and when they fail, the consequences ripple far beyond the site of the accident. A single fire in a data center can cripple financial systems. A faulty panel in a hospital can put patients at risk. A misrepresented cladding in a high-rise can ignite tragedy on a scale that scars a generation. All of that sends a common and urgent message: National security is not just about borders; it's about materials.

For decades, the materials that shape infrastructure have been wrapped in layers of promises. A certificate says they contain recycled content. A datasheet insists they are fire-resistant. Regulators nod, insurers underwrite, and contractors install, all with the assumption that these claims are accurate. Yet history tells a different story. Recycling targets are overstated, safety claims are exaggerated, and enforcement comes only after disaster has already struck. The Grenfell Tower fire in London was the most visible of these failures, but it is far from the only one. The truth is simple: without proof at the molecular level, infrastructure is built on trust that cannot be trusted.

SMX (NASDAQ: SMX) is rewriting this equation. By embedding molecular markers into materials and valuing them through their Plastic Cycle Token (PCT), the company makes safety and sustainability inseparable from the products themselves. A single scan can confirm that recycled plastics are genuine and that flame retardants are present and effective. That includes the hardest-to-detect materials - the "ghost plastics" like carbon black and flame-retardant compounds that slip past traditional scanners and usually end up in the plastics graveyard.

Shining A Light On "Ghost Plastics"

For infrastructure, this is not a nice-to-have. It is a necessity. It means airports can be built with verified fire-resistant panels, hospitals can be equipped with certified safe and sustainable materials, and defense facilities can operate without the hidden risk of non-compliant supply chains. Proof becomes part of the infrastructure itself, available whenever and wherever it is needed.

Singapore has already embraced this vision. Through its partnership with A*STAR, SMX has launched the world's first national plastics passport, creating a system where recycling claims are enforceable across the entire economy. Europe is moving in the same direction, where SMX and REDWAVE have brought molecular verification onto factory floors, turning industrial sorting into a continuous act of compliance. These programs demonstrate that proof is not theoretical. It is scalable, enforceable, and practical at the level of nations and industries.

Now, SMX is extending this capability into flame retardants with the North American Flame Retardant Alliance (NAFRA), and that takes the story directly into the realm of national security. Fire safety is not an abstract regulatory box to be checked. It is the difference between infrastructure that can withstand disaster and infrastructure that becomes the disaster. By embedding proof of flame retardants into the same system that verifies recycling, SMX gives governments, contractors, and defense agencies a tool they have never had before. They can demand molecular evidence that materials meet the dual requirements of sustainability and safety.

Tapping Into Trillions in Infrastructure

For stakeholders, the implications are enormous. Critical infrastructure represents trillions of dollars in global spending, and every new project faces tighter regulations, higher insurance scrutiny, and rising public expectations. The ability to deliver materials that are not just claimed but proven safe and sustainable is a competitive advantage that will shape markets. Contractors will pay a premium for verified inputs to avoid liability. Insurers will lower costs for projects with proof embedded. Governments will set new standards that mandate verification because they can finally enforce it. SMX sits at the center of this transformation, not as a supplier of materials but as the infrastructure of trust that materials will depend on.

National security is about resilience, and resilience is built from the ground up. It is built from materials that can prove they are what they claim to be. With A*STAR showing how a nation can enforce recycling, REDWAVE proving how industry can scale verification, and NAFRA legitimizing flame-retardant claims across North America, SMX has created the first system where infrastructure can be both sustainable and safe by design. The molecules themselves carry the evidence, and the scan provides the certainty.

Old World Promises Yield to New World Molecular Proof

The old world of promises and paper compliance has already proven its weaknesses. The new world of molecular proof is what governments, insurers, and contractors have been waiting for. For consumers, it means peace of mind that their hospitals, airports, and schools are protected. For nations, it means infrastructure that strengthens security rather than undermines it. And for stakeholders, it means entry into a market where proof is not optional but foundational.

The future of national security will not be decided only by armies or budgets. It will be decided by the trustworthiness of the materials that hold societies together. SMX is building that trust one scan at a time, and in doing so, it is securing not only infrastructure but the future it lives on.

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