Foam air filter disintegrating, clogging carb, alternatives?

I have an older yamaha ef2800i generator that I keep in storage for power outages and a couple years ago, it ran very poorly. I discovered the foam filter disintegrated and tiny particularly fed into the carb. Big mess. Decided the filter was very old, original, so hard to fault it. I ordered a new oem foam filter and now, 2 years later, it has done the same thing. I looked online for a paper alternative but nothing popped up so I ordered another oem foam filter but I’m very hesitant since carb rebuilds on this model take some work.

I know I could just replace the filter once a year and that may be the answer but for a gen that is used once every 2-3 years, I just don’t think about it and prefer to find a different option.

Any ideas? I don’t have this problem w my Honda’s