Entrepreneur
Movie star Jason Momoa may have hung up his Aquaman trident, but his quest to protect the seven seas is far from over. His latest venture, Mananalu Powered by Boomerang Water, aims to tackle one of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges: plastic waste. Alongside Boomerang Water co-founders U.S. Air Force veteran Jason Dibble and Wall Street financial expert Jerrod Freund, the actor and advocate is bringing star power to sustainable solutions for water conservation.
More than just a role
Momoa’s connection to the ocean runs deeper than his superhero persona. A proud native Hawaiian, he has long championed environmental causes, serving as a UNEP spokesperson for the Life Below Water initiative.
But advocacy alone wasn’t enough to satisfy his passion for protecting the planet. In 2019, he took action by founding Mananalu, a sustainable water company that packages drinking water in recyclable aluminum bottles and operates on a “buy one, remove one” model — removing plastic bottles from oceans with every purchase. Now powered by Boomerang, Mananalu is relaunching as a B2B on-site bottling system, aiming to provide healthy water to everyone without single-use waste.
“What Boomerang has built is something I always dreamed of but didn’t know how to make happen,” Momoa said. “Using local water sources in every state? That kind of intricate solution wasn’t available until now.”
Boomerang’s circular technology is already reducing waste in hotels, schools and hospitals. Initial installations are up and running at The Twin Fin Hotel, Romer House Waikiki, Kaimana Beach Hotel and Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach, helping Hawaii become less dependent on mainland water shipments.
“Businesses want to make a difference, and the B2B approach allows us to reach broader audiences with fewer touchpoints,” said Boomerang Co-Founder Jerrod Freund. “When Mananalu initially took the CPG route, it generated great awareness, but you need additional tools to create real impact and enforce change. Jason’s involvement played a major role in Mananalu’s growth,” Freund says. “So, we thought, why not apply that same ideology to businesses?”
“At first, it was about eliminating single-use plastics. Now it’s about reducing all waste and re-teaching generations,” Momoa explains. He compares the system to the old-fashioned milkman model, where full bottles are delivered, and empty ones are left out for reuse. “Boomerang drives the car, shows up at your doorstep, picks up a crate, and says, ‘Thanks a lot! Say hi to your mother for me.’ It’s modern-day delivery,” the actor shares enthusiastically, dubbing himself “the Mananalu man.”
Image Credit: Mananalu Powered by Boomerang
Rebel with a cause
Before his big break in acting, Momoa was studying to become the world’s most muscular marine biologist. Though he admits he wasn’t the best student, his passion for the environment has always been palpable. “I grew up loving the ocean and caring about the environment,” Momoa says. “But I lived in two very different worlds — Iowa and the west side of Hawaii — and neither place really prioritized it. But fighting for it was fun. It made me feel like a rebel, and I am a rebel.”
Decades later, his celebrity status has given him a platform to turn his lifelong commitment to environmental change into a tangible reality.
“It’s really serendipitous that I ended up becoming Aquaman, and now I get to meet incredible scientists and people who can help me make a real difference,” Momoa says.
Dibble shares this sentiment of serendipity, reflecting on how incredible it was that he and Momoa crossed paths. “It’s like, you’re working on building this brand, and suddenly, the guy who represents Aquaman is sitting next to you,” Dibble laughs. “It’s really wild.”
The Boomerang founders first met Momoa after realizing their sustainable water companies shared a partner in Ball Corp. “We’d been in parallel talks with these partners, and at one point they said, ‘You guys should probably just get together,'” Freund adds. “It made a lot of sense.”
Related: 7 Water-Saving Strategies for Your Business
Combat zones to conservationism
Dibble first thought of the idea for Boomerang Water in 2003, during the first of his three tours with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. “When you arrive, they hand you a big bottle of water and say, ‘You drink with it, you cook with it, you brush your teeth with it,” the co-founder shared. “Meanwhile, you take showers using the local water. Every day, planes would fly in with more bottled water, and I kept thinking, What is going on here?“
Beyond the inconvenience, the system created an immense amount of plastic waste. And what do they do with all those empty bottles? “We burned them in pits,” Dibble recalls. “I remember thinking, This is the dumbest idea in the world.“
He couldn’t understand why the military wasn’t using the water available on-site. Not only did flying in bottled water seem wasteful, but it also posed a security risk.
Dibble went on three more missions, where the problem only worsened. “I kept asking myself, There’s got to be a better way,” he says. “And it’s not just the military — you see it everywhere. The proliferation of plastic bottles had to change.” It took years, but Dibble believes Boomerang Water could be the solution.
Though his time as the protector of the Seven Seas has ended on screen, Jason Momoa’s commitment to environmental progress endures. “I’m dead set on banning single-use plastics,” the actor says. “That’s a massive goal for me.”
While he confessed to “borrowing” items from the Aquaman set during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the most meaningful thing Momoa took wasn’t a souvenir — it was the titular hero’s mission to protect the ocean.
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