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Sausage casing firm fined £48,000 for polluting North Lanarkshire burn with industrial effluent

Date published: 24 March 2026

Prosecutions A North Lanarkshire company has been fined £48,000 after untreated industrial effluent from its Moodiesburn factory – which makes collagen casings used in sausage production – was discharged into a local burn, significantly harming the environment.

Devro (Scotland) Limited pled guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court on 11th November 2025 to carrying on a controlled activity liable to cause pollution of the water environment without the required authorisation from SEPA. The case followed an investigation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), with the matter reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Devro (Scotland) Limited are also required to pay a victim surcharge of £3,600.

On 17th July 2021, SEPA officers received public complaints of pollution to the Bothlin Burn, a tributary of the Luggie Water. On attending, the officers noted significant pollution in the burn, and a polluting discharge was traced to Devro (Scotland) Limited’s site.

Devro (Scotland) Limited’s manufacturing process producing significant volumes of trade effluent (wastewater) from animal hide washing undertaken inside a number of large drums, which use mechanical action and chemicals to remove material from the animal skins. Under normal conditions, the factory’s trade effluent should be discharged to the public sewer under a trade effluent direction from Scottish Water, which includes strict limits on volume and chemical content.

The pollution to the Bothlin Burn resulted from an incident within Devro (Scotland) Limited’s site between 14th and 18th July 2021, when a blockage in the company’s foul sewer line caused a back-up of trade effluent. The factory operated a dual manhole drainage system, comprising a foul pipe and surface water pipe running alongside each other. This back-up within the foul pipe spilled over into the surface water pipe, with untreated effluent entering the surface water network and discharging direct to the Bothlin Burn.

Shona McConnell SEPA’s Head of Environmental Performance Geographic, said:

“This was a serious and entirely avoidable pollution incident that caused significant harm to a local watercourse. Our investigation found that a blocked foul sewer led to a substantial volume of highly polluting trade effluent wrongly escaping via the site’s surface water system.

“Devro (Scotland) Limited have since removed the dual manhole drainage system. Infrastructure like this, and lack of maintenance, poses real risks. Businesses must ensure that their drainage systems are properly understood, regularly maintained and, crucially, designed to protect against this kind of failure.

“We would encourage any operators using dual manhole systems, or who are uncertain, to review their drainage layout, to take urgent steps to understand the risks and to put controls in place. SEPA expect all businesses to take responsibility for protecting Scotland's water environment and where they don’t, we will take action.”

Notes to editor

The exact charge Devro (Scotland) Limited pled guilty to was:

Between 14th July 2021 and 18th July 2021, both dates inclusive, at Bothlin Burn, Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire, you DEVRO (SCOTLAND) LTD did carry out a controlled activity, namely an activity liable to cause pollution of the water environment in that you did discharge trade effluent containing elevated levels of Ammonia, Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand from the Devro (Scotland) Ltd premises at Moodiesburn, Chryston, North Lanarkshire, to the water environment otherwise than in accordance under the aforementioned Regulations

CONTRARY to the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 Regulation 4 and 44(1)(a) and the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 Section 20(3)(a)