TerraCycle partners with Home Depot

TRENTON -- TerraCycle, which manufactures plant food from worm waste, has kicked off an environmental program in conjunc tion with the Home Depot in Ewing.

People are being asked to drop off used 20-ounce plastic soda bottles at the store at 1621 N. Olden Ave. The bottles will be reused as packaging for TerraCycle's plant food, and TerraCycle will donate five cents for each bottle returned to Eldridge Park School in Lawrence as well as some other schools that TerraCycle will announce later.

In addition, TerraCycle will do nate 5 cents for each bottle to Zerofootprint, a Toronto-based environmental awareness effort that provides services and information to businesses that are working to reduce their environmental impact, according to TerraCycle spokeswoman Jennifer Wilkie.

The Home Depot will have for the next several weeks a pallet including a cardboard receptacle for the used plastic bottles. TerraCycle hopes to keep thousands of bottles out of landfills through this program.

TerraCycle, which has a 20,000-square-foot facility on New York Avenue, is a 4-year-old company that was started by two former Princeton University students and essentially uses garbage in the manufacturing and packaging of its plant food. Sun National promotion VINELAND -- Sun National Bank has named Jeffrey P. Hawkins executive vice president of retail banking. The bank has 80 branches in southern and central New Jersey, including seven in Mercer County and five in Burlington County.

Hawkins' job will be to increase the bank's market share, deposit and loan growth, according to a re lease. He most recently was senior vice president and national sales director at JPMorgan Chase in New York City.

Sun Bancorp earlier this summer cut about 80 jobs from its work force of 890 people. Despite that, Sun has increased its deposit holdings. For the six months that ended June 30, Sun reported total assets of $3.21 billion, an increase of $104.2 million from Dec. 31. Total deposits as of June 30 were $2.59 billion, an increase of $114.4 million from the end of last year. Yardville National dividend HAMILTON -- Yardville National Bancorp, which successfully fended off a perceived hostile takeover attempt earlier this year, declared a quarterly cash dividend last week of 11 1/2 cents per share payable Sept. 28 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 14. It is the 51st consecutive quarter in which YNB has paid a regular cash dividend.

As of June 30, Yardville National had $3.02 billion in assets. Earlier this year, activist shareholder Leonard Seidman failed to unseat three incumbent directors and install his preferred replacements. He had criticized the bank for failing to keep up in the marketplace, while bank officials argued that shareholders had earned a superior rate of return in recent years. Voxware revenue falls LAWRENCE -- Voxware, which develops voice-driven logistics software for the warehouse industry, reported a 12 percent drop in revenues for the 12 months ending June 30.

Voxware reported revenue of $15.5 million as opposed to $17.5 million last year, with a corresponding operating loss of $6.9 million. After excluding $4.1 million in amortization of deferred employee compensation associated with stock options, the operating loss was $2.8 million, according to a re lease.

Paul Commons, chief financial officer of the company, said the company employs about 90 people overall. It also has facilities in Cambridge, Mass., and the United Kingdom. He said the company has been going through some transitions, including developing partnerships with other companies to facilitate sales and hardware development. Dataram gets $2.3M WEST WINDSOR -- A maker of computer memory boards has received $2.3 million from an unidentified manufacturer of computer memory chips as part of a legal settlement.

Dataram, a 39-year-old company that employs about 100 in West Windsor and Ivyland, Pa., agreed to accept the settlement in exchange for not pursuing further legal action against the company, whose identity was not disclosed as part of the agreement.

Mark Maddocks, vice president for finance, said that Dataram is involved in a California-based antitrust lawsuit alleging price fixing by various chip manufacturers. "We agreed with one specific manufacturer not to participate (in litigation) with respect to them," he said.

For the fiscal year ended April 30, Dataram's revenues decreased 36 percent, to $41.8 million, and net income dropped 59 percent, to $2.8 million. For the quarter that ended July 31, Dataram's reported revenues were $9.3 million, compared with $13.9 million for the prior-year fiscal quarter.

The company reported it will recognize the settlement in its second fiscal quarter which ends Oct. 31. It will add about 16 cents per share to the quarter's net income. Late yesterday, Dataram was trading at $4.75, up 1.87 percent.

-- Staff and wire reports