First things first-there is NEVER a bad idea when it comes to programs wanting to create sustainable and circular global supply chains. Every initiative contributes to the broader conversation on how to reduce waste and improve resource efficiency. Some ideas, like the Borrow Cup initiative- a reusable cup program launched in Glasgow by major coffee retailers like Costa Coffee, Caffè Nero, and Burger King UK-represent meaningful steps in the right direction.
They encourage behavioral shifts and highlight the urgent need for alternatives to single-use packaging.Borrow Cup brings awareness to the issue of disposable waste and fosters consumer engagement. However, for such initiatives to achieve true scalability, they must overcome three major obstacles: dependence on consumer behavior, lack of accurate traceability, and operational inefficiencies that may counteract their environmental benefits.
Fortunately, we're not starting from scratch-technology exists today that can enhance and optimize these efforts. SMX Ltd. (NASDAQ: SMX) has it. This pioneering technology company specializes in digitizing physical assets and materials for the circular economy, providing a tangible, tech-driven way to track, trace, value, and monetize all types of waste. By integrating digital markers at the molecular level into materials-from precious metals and commodities to computer hardware, liquids, fashion, and, yes, reusable cups-SMX enables seamless, blockchain-backed circularity.
SMX Technology Makes Good Ideas Into Great Ones
Building on good ideas with better systems, Borrow Cup is part of an ongoing global experiment and mission to refine waste reduction strategies, and that in itself is commendable. It gets people thinking about sustainability and promotes active participation. However, the challenge is that many of these ideas rely heavily on consumer responsibility, which, to sustainable practices detriment, has historically been an unreliable mechanism for systemic change.
The numbers tell the story: three-quarters of UK residents own reusable cups, yet only a third use them at least once a month. The challenge isn't access-it's behavior. While Borrow Cup encourages returns with a £1 deposit and small incentives like loyalty points or discounts, history suggests that behavioral reliance alone rarely achieves lasting impact. Deposit-return programs have existed for decades, yet recycling rates remain inconsistent, demonstrating that incentives alone aren't enough to drive widespread change.
This is where SMX provides a game-changing enhancement. Instead of relying on consumer habits, SMX embeds invisible, blockchain-tracked tracers into materials, allowing companies and regulators to monitor their full lifecycle. This means plastics, paper, and other materials can be traced from production through reuse and recycling, eliminating uncertainty and ensuring that sustainability efforts are data-driven rather than dependent on goodwill.
Exposing The Hidden Costs
Addressing the hidden costs of "Reusability," one of the biggest challenges with Borrow Cup-and many other reuse-based initiatives-is the logistical burden. Again, not bashing the great intent, collecting, washing, redistributing, and replacing lost or damaged cups requires additional energy, water, and labor, all of which contribute to the environmental footprint of the system. Without real-time data on its true impact, it's difficult to determine whether Borrow Cup is genuinely reducing waste or simply shifting the problem elsewhere.
SMX eliminates that guesswork. In other words, it takes a good idea by Borrow Cup and makes it a great one. With molecular markers, brands gain full visibility into material flows, tracking how many reuse cycles a product undergoes, identifying inefficiencies, and ensuring that recovered materials are actually being reintegrated into the supply chain. Instead of assuming Borrow Cup works, SMX delivers the hard data necessary to prove-or refine-its impact.
SMX Can Help Implement With Scale
Moreover, for sustainability to be truly transformative, it must be economically viable at scale. That's where SMX introduces a powerful financial mechanism: the Plastic Cycle Token (PCT). Rather than treating sustainability as an optional responsibility, PCTs transform recycled materials into tradable financial assets. This fully functional economic model ties sustainability efforts to profitability-creating an incentive structure that benefits businesses, governments, and even consumers. When waste reduction has financial value, it becomes self-sustaining rather than dependent on behavioral goodwill.
Don't misunderstand- Borrow Cup is an admirable initiative that plays an important role in the sustainability landscape. It raises awareness, encourages participation, and demonstrates that businesses are willing to invest in solutions. However, without robust traceability, accountability, and economic incentives, such programs will always face scalability challenges. SMX can help cure these these limitations.
The best news is that SMX's solution isn't a short-term experiment-it's already being deployed at scale, providing businesses with the tools they need to measure, verify, and optimize sustainability efforts in real-time. SMX isn't just about improving existing practices-it's about redefining them.
Borrow Cup is a significant step toward sustainability, and SMX can help ensure that ideas like this one promote sustainable practices. Undoubtedly, by collaborating to create a fully integrated, incentivized, profitable, and verifiable component of the global supply chain, all parties win- especially the planet.
About the Plastic Cycle Token
For decades, carbon credits have been the go-to tool for addressing environmental challenges, but they often fail to account for the real-world flow of materials. With over 400 million metric tons of plastic waste generated annually, much of it remains outside traditional sustainability frameworks. SMX Ltd. (NASDAQ: SMX), a leader in traceability solutions, is changing that with the Plastic Cycle Token (PCT)-a breakthrough in plastic waste accountability.
Unlike carbon credits, which lack direct material verification, PCTs are tied to actual plastic flows. SMX's technology allows plastics to be marked, tracked, and verified throughout their lifecycle, ensuring that each traded token represents real plastic being recycled and reintroduced into supply chains. This creates a transparent and measurable system that benefits industries struggling to meet sustainability mandates.
Rather than penalizing companies with rigid quotas and taxes-especially in the EU-SMX's approach incentivizes participation in the circular economy. Beverage giants like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, constantly under regulatory scrutiny, can use PCTs to demonstrate verifiable recycling efforts. The same applies to MedTech firms dealing with sterile packaging, aviation companies using lightweight composites, and energy firms seeking supply chain transparency. By ensuring the traceability of plastics across industries, PCTs help businesses improve ESG performance without sacrificing efficiency.
With real-time tracking and verifiable proof of plastic usage, PCTs eliminate the guesswork in sustainability reporting. This transparency appeals to all parties across the supply chain that are focused on ESG accountability, allowing them to distinguish genuine sustainability efforts from corporate greenwashing. By shifting from penalties to incentives, SMX is not only addressing the global plastic crisis-it is pioneering a market-driven solution that makes environmental responsibility measurable, transparent, and economically viable.
About SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited Company
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 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.
This opinion article is published with permission from Hawk Point media Group, Llc. Other than for fact-checking purposes, SMX Ltd. has offered no editorial contributions.
Additional Disclaimers and Disclosures: This is sponsored content. Hawk Point Media Group, LLC. (HPM) has been compensated, or expects to be, to produce and distribute digital content for SMX Ltd. It should be expressly understood that HPM is not operated by a licensed broker, a dealer, or a registered investment adviser. It should also be expressly understood that under no circumstances does any information published herein represent a recommendation to buy or sell a security. HPM reports/releases are commercial advertisements and are for general information purposes ONLY. The information made available by HPM is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, investment advice or recommendations. The contributors do NOT buy and sell securities covered before or after any particular article, report and/or publication. HPM holds ZERO shares of stock in SMX Ltd.. While HPM does not own or market shares, it is prudent to expect that those hiring HPM including that company's owners, employees, and affiliates, may sell some or even all of the SMX Ltd. shares that they own, if any, during and/or after this engagement period. Always do your own due diligence prior to investing in any publicly traded company. For a full disclaimer and disclosure statement, click HERE.
Contact Information
Ken Ellis
ken@hawkpointmedia.com
SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters)
