Іt is substantiated that investment activity in the waste management system is a complex of interconnected and logically ordered forms and methods of financing capital investments in the development of secondary resource use infrastructure, as well as instruments of budgetary and tax, monetary and credit, licensing and permitting and property stimulation of the extraction of resource values of secondary material resources. It is established that the accelerated growth rates of the amount of capital investments in the waste management system in 2002–2023 are largely due to inflationary and devaluation processes, and not to significant qualitative shifts in the structure of financing the modernization of the industrial and household waste management industry. Studies have shown that investment activities in the field of waste management represent a complex of forms and methods of financing capital investments in the development of infrastructure for secondary resource use, as well as instruments of budgetary, tax, monetary, licensing, and property stimulation of the extraction of resource values of secondary raw materials. An analysis of the main trends in financing general expenses in the field of waste management showed that such financing is mainly of a current, rather than investment nature, which is due to a permanent financial deficit in the secondary resource use system due to the imperfection of the institutional environment for investing in recycling projects of secondary material resources. It is proved that the intensification of investment activity in the waste management system in Ukraine in the context of deepening decentralization requires expanding the scope of public–private partnership agreements and institutionalization of tax, credit, customs and property preferences.