Email addresses can be obtained for free. Because they are free it is feasible to have a ‘throwaway’ email address: one which you will use for a few months then change. This  ‘throwaway’ email is perfect for when you must sign up for a service online with your email address.  Sign up, confirm the subscription, use the service or receive the product, then forget about it.  Once the spam starts to flood in (which it will, eventually) you can change the email address - cancel the old one and get a new one - and begin to use this in the same way.

Clearly using a ‘throwaway’ email address for everyday contact with friends and colleagues would be difficult, but for temporary usage a temporary address should work just fine.

The free email providers are doing a good job at filtering out spam (some better than others, it should be added), but there is still a way to go.  You may find that you need to swap email addresses less and less as time goes on. Either way with free, quick and easy setup there’s little point in tolerating any spam at all.