cats in the garbage-please help

I have a problem with cats in the garbage. It didn't used to be an issue, as the cats all belong to a neighbor down the street, and are fed regularly...but the neighbor that just moved out was in the habit of leaving garbage bags on the front porch, which was too tempting for the outside colony to pass up, and now they're all in the habit of digging through trash for meat leftovers and anything else that they can find. 

With this neighbor moved as of last week, they're getting into my trash. What can I do to keep them out. I intend to buy all new garbage cans, so that the lids will fit better, but I wondered about some sort of "cat repellent" as well, since they know how to open a trash can.

Any suggestions are welcome please

I forgot to mention in my original post that I was contemplating various options from the spice cupboard, such as pepper, curry etc. the idea that I had was to shake a little onto each bag as it goes into the can to deter the cats from chewing. 

But I am unsure of the best option, as I want to deter the cats, not harm. 

There are many smells cats don't like. Altough, I'm not sure if there is a way to deter cats from it entirely. The smells coming from the garbage are probably stronger.

You could try this http://m.wikihow.com/Make-Homemade-Cat-Repellent

If not I would get better trash cans. Maybe even rig them to stay up right. Put some rocks at the bottom or something.

Good luck

thank you Kyface. I'll be getting better garbage cans, but the ones that I want are about 30bucks and I need 4 of them. I have to wait until after Christmas is paid for, unfortunately. 

I do keep bricks on my lids, and picked up a cheap can, so that I have another with a lid that fits....I'd lost a couple of lids during wind storms, and was short of lids for the cans I had. The cats just hopped up on the cans without lids, and slept in them before, but didn't chew because we don't generally throw out much food. also, I have a giant can with an attached lid, that is too big to go out to the curb, but fits four bags. I usually put anything worth chewing in that can with a brick on the lid.

I'll definitely try making a 'repellant' to hold me over until I can get the cans with the locking lids that Canadian tire sells. They're meant to be raccoon proof