A friend of mine slightly knew the inventor of the Jerry can, who was quite amused by the name, which BTW, pre-dates the war.
On the contrary, a huge number were reused. They were an ideal source of metal for dummy railway tracks across the desert to a false railhead, which was attacked by the Germans on several ocasions. The camouflage officer responsible noted that he could have done with more, as shortage of materials meant that he had to slowly reduce the scale to 2/3 size.
Colin Bignell