Four Greenpeace protestors at the Clandeboye dairy factory, north of Timaru, have been charged with trespassing, after they were arrested Tuesday night, following 9 hours chained to equipment at the factory.

Greenpeace’s Simon Boxer maintains they’re against using coal at the plant and they want Fonterra to switch to cleaner fuels like wood pellets.

Clandeboye has one of the world’s biggest milk dehumidifiers and uses 130,000 tonnes of coal a year to fire the boiler used to make milk powder.

Fonterra said in a statement the protestors’ action were disappointing as it would be good if they were to talk directly with the company rather than endangering their safety by taking on potentially dangerous stunts.

It says the protest had no impact on its operations and uses the best mix of energy sources available at each of their sites.