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Keurig Green Mountain Stock Plunges Amid Technology, Environmental Concerns

"We heard loud and clear from consumers," company CEO says.

Earlier this year, the man who invented "K-Cup" coffee pods said he regretted he ever did it.

Today, certain investors in parent company Keurig Green Mountain probably wish they hadn't bought in.

The company's stock fell 10 per cent when the market opened on Thursday, after experiencing a 23 per cent decline in first quarter sales of its brewing machines and accessories year over year, CNN reported.

All this, after Keurig was considered one of the most popular stocks of the past couple of years.

The trend came amid consumer anger with the Keurig 2.0, a machine that does not allow drinkers to use "My K-Cups," reusable cartridges that could be filled with any brand of coffee, reported The Washington Post.

Keurig is now working on a My K-Cup that will work with its new machine, but previous refillable holders will still not work with it.

Company CEO Brian Kelley has since said it will bring the "My K-Cup" back, and allow consumers to use other pods in its machines.

"We heard loud and clear from consumers," he said on an earnings call Wednesday.

But the stock has also fallen amid concern about the waste that the technology creates.

K-Cups work by being placed in a Keurig machine. It pokes a hole in the pod's lid, fills it with water and then uses pressure to pour brewed coffee into single-serve cups.

It's an alternative to drip coffee, offering drinks that are "fresh and consistent all day."

The K-Cups are made from plastic #7, which contains four separate layers and is only recyclable in some Canadian cities.

Mother Jones reported that in 2013, enough K-Cups were produced to encircle the equator 10.5 times, and that most of the pods are disposed of in landfills.

Waste concerns surrounding Keurig machines were encapsulated in a horror movie-like video that was released in January.

Keurig has said it is working to reduce waste by designing a new model that uses polypropylene, a recyclable material.

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